SYDNEY: Artificial intelligence and the rise of the visual consumer are two must-know financial trends for marketers in the financial services category, as the category undergoes high-paced innovation and change.

So says Simon Corah, CEO of Growth Mantra, a boutique strategy consultancy, who discussed this topic at the recent Mumbrella Finance Marketing Summit. (For more, read WARC’s report: Six new financial trends marketers need to know.)

According to Corah, technology is driving the “yin and yang” of innovation and disruption in financial services, with emerging trends such as artificial intelligence creating new jobs and opportunities to connect with consumers.

While he doesn't deny that AI is going to have an impact, he feels too much focus is being placed on the negative outcome of the robot revolution. “We've heard all the rumours: 40% of jobs in the white collar world in the next 20 years will disappear. Whatever the stat is, it's all bollocks because nobody knows,” Corah said.

“We focus on job losses that will occur but we don't talk about the jobs that are going to be created,” he said, citing how the launch of the smartphone spurred more than 1.6m jobs in the app development industry.

Corah also cited the rise of the “visual consumer” – the person who sees something on their mobile and immediately wants to buy it. This is a huge opportunity for financial brands to focus on their end-to-end mobile customer experience, and specifically ease of payment.

“In a world where we don’t have time, how are you making it easier for us to buy sh*t just at the moment we want? We are all moving to impulse,” said Corah.

Acknowledging these trends is only the first step for those in the financial services industry, Corah said, the next step is being brave enough to act.

“You've got to try different things, you've got to experiment, you've got to invent. You’ve got to do stuff because if you don’t and somebody else does, it’s your business that suffers.”

Data sourced from WARC