As the banking industry becomes increasingly hybrid and digital, retail banks can rely on AIOps to support, secure and strengthen their organization.
As we enter a new year, retail banking leaders must be mindful of two key planning considerations: For the foreseeable future, banking will be more digital than ever and, more importantly, it will be hybrid.
Going forward, financial services employees expect to work in a hybrid workplace that allows both in-office and remote work. According to PwC, 70% of industry employers believe that employees should be in the office at least three days a week. A similar sentiment was found in a Deloitte survey, which found that 70% of respondents expect their organizations to adopt a hybrid work model.
The hybrid workplace relies on exceptional digital tools and services in order to function seamlessly, meaning digital transformation and enabling extraordinary experiences via technology also must be a focus for banking leaders.
However, with great digital tools comes great responsibility. Banking leaders need to ensure that technology operates in a way that enhances overall user experiences. To do so, retail banks should invest in an intelligent automation solution that automates and streamlines IT operations, such as Amelia AIOps.
There are three main ways that AIOps benefits retail banks as they advance their digital transformation journeys, especially as they navigate the new hybrid workplace. We explore these below.
Support the Hybrid Workplace
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe and businesses everywhere switched to remote work, reliance on digital tools to enable business continuity skyrocketed, and IT teams were under immense pressure to deploy new technology quickly and efficiently.
Although new digital tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom helped retail banks function during the pandemic, banks now operate with a complicated and disconnected IT toolbelt of both new and outdated technology, which negatively affects employee satisfaction and overall productivity. In fact, a recent Riverbed survey found that 44% of financial sector decision-makers said slow and outdated technology has a major impact on business.
As many retail banks safely return to offices, and the hybrid workplace model solidifies in the financial sector, IT teams are tasked with ensuring employees are equipped with reliable technology and IT support, regardless from where employees log in.
With AIOps, retail banks can empower their IT teams with an AI sidekick that resolves employees’ IT requests instantly. For example, Amelia AIOps is skilled in resolving numerous IT-related requests including IP Phone troubleshooting, password resets, account unlocks, Wi-Fi connectivity issues and more. While Amelia handles high-volume, repetitive requests, IT staff can focus on higher-value job functions and projects, such as those that directly generate new revenue.
Automating IT service desk requests with AIOps also improves employee productivity and overall satisfaction. Employees no longer must wait hours for their IT tickets to be resolved, as Amelia AIOps does so instantly, allowing employees to get back to work faster.
Banking leaders are currently also competing for talent, making it a business imperative to provide an exceptional employee experience. Amelia AIOps enables a streamlined onboarding experience from new employees’ first day and onward. As many banking new hires are onboarded remotely, or in a hybrid capacity, virtual IT support needs to be quick, reliable and easy to access.
Amelia supports new employees in real-time by setting up accounts, helping employees access their new phones and computers, and troubleshooting any IT-related issues, allowing new hires to be up and running faster than ever before.
Secure the Hybrid Workplace
In the financial sector, security is of the utmost importance. Regardless of whether employees are logging in to their work devices from home, the office or a coffee shop, retail banking leaders need to be confident that their employees will securely and reliably connect to their organizations’ network.
If it takes IT teams more than an hour to assist employees with connecting to the company’s VPN, they waste employees’ valuable time, impact their productivity, and risk security breaches. Urgent deadlines may cause employees to feel pressured to complete tasks without securely signing into their devices if they know it will take an hour or so to receive help, thus exposing the company to potential cyber threats.
Amelia AIOps helps to mitigate the risk of security breaches, as she immediately resolves employees’ IT service desk requests, allowing employees to quickly and securely get back to work.
Strengthen the Hybrid Workplace
In a recent report, Deloitte highlighted how the pandemic was a catalyst for banks to rapidly modernize their IT operations, while warning banking leaders that the modernization efforts made during the pandemic were “incremental, localized, and fragmented.” The retail banking industry has grappled with the challenge of legacy and outdated technology for years, and the addition of new digital tools deployed during the pandemic has only worsened existing operational inefficiencies.
To address the challenges of a fragmented IT infrastructure, Deloitte encouraged banking technology leaders to “evaluate the end-to-end business value chain” and integrate across modern platform stacks.
Intelligent automation solutions like Amelia AIOps enable retail banks to connect disparate systems to a single autonomic backbone, which streamlines existing IT deployments, while also positioning banks’ technology stacks for faster updates and integrations, as well as greater long-term value and resilience.
There is no doubt that the future of banking will be digital and hybrid. As the hybrid workplace continues to evolve and bring in new digital tools to help employees work and stay connected from anywhere, AIOps will be a necessary solution to help retail banks strengthen their resiliency, flexibility and competitive edge.