BISA Magazine - Quarter 2, 2017 - 20

FEATURE STORY
But after 10 more minutes or so of driverless highway travel, he began to calm
down. The car did a loop on Highway
101, returning to the Googleplex. His
view of the future now includes driverless vehicles, which will bring societal
benefits but also disruptions. Ross himself may be able to sit in the back seat
and work on his next project rather
than waste time with his hands on the
steering wheel traveling to work, for
example. But consider another consequence of this innovation: Three million people make a good middle-class
living driving a motor vehicle in the
U.S. What will happen to them if and
when their job skills become obsolete?
Robo-advisors are a big issue in the
financial services industry today. Will
robots replace financial advisors? No
one really knows, but we are on the
verge of a new era, robotically speaking. A mathematical breakthrough in
mapping belief space is making many
robotic tasks, like grasping an object
(which is surprisingly complex), much
easier, Ross said. Robots of the future
won't require lots of expensive hardware and software to be built inside of
them, either. They'll be connected to
the cloud for that. Robots won't take
over all forms of work, but they could
take control of lots of routine, mildly
cognitive tasks.
His advice, to the audience of financial
services managers and advisors? "Make
sure your institution has the data science chops." Smart wealth managers
won't be data scientists, but they will
have access to, and be able to use, the
data science toolbox.
Ross said the financial services industry
should be obsessed with disintermediation. Yes, robo-advisors might
replace some advisors, and profit
margins might shrink as the industry
becomes more efficient. The winners
will be those who think of new ways to
add value.
"The best people are those who can get
into the heads of clients," Ross said. ▲

20
www.bisanet.org

Most of the 20 billion networked
devices are still generating dumb data.
"We are not yet producing Pacific
Oceans of intelligence, or wisdom,"
Ross said.

http://www.bisanet.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BISA Magazine - Quarter 2, 2017