When The Bank’s Customers Are Replaced By Custobots

I was interested to see that Gartner’s
IT
top ten strategic technology trends for 2024 include the arrival of machine customers (what they call ‘custobots’ but what I call “economic avatars“, a precise and descriptive label that the virtual reality visionary Jaron Lanier introduced some years ago). These are the smart, non-human actors that can autonomously negotiate and purchase goods and services in exchange for payment. Gartner think that in five years there will be 15 billion connected products with the potential to behave as customers, with billions more to follow in the coming years.

APIs Not Brands

This all sounds a bit hyperbolic, but the fact is I think that Gartner might well be right. They suggest that organisations pay strategic attention to the switch from human to machine customers, and I have long thought that this should be a priority for financial services organisations in particular.