In his novel, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ Lewis Carroll tells the tale of his heroine, Alice, as she tumbles through a mirror into a fantasy world.
Will banks fall through Google Glass into a different fantasia? Is deploying augmented reality in financial services as useful as the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – or does it offer a genuine opportunity for banks to improve customer experience, service and sales?
By Alex Bray, Retail Channel Director at Misys
The banking
industry thrives on buzz. When you work in a business that is founded on
principles such as reliability, security and trustworthiness - where the manner
in which you implement your risk management procedures can be the difference
between solid success or spectacular failure – then the slightest hint of a sexy
innovation can cause a dizzying rush of blood to the head. Today, it is the
turn of augmented reality (AR) to leave many bankers in a fuddled state. But is
AR all that? Or will augmented reality leave us wanting less?
To review augmented reality in banking, I will be focussing on the device of the moment - Google Glass. Glass
is Google’s first foray into wearable devices – augmented reality glasses. The
user wears the device – which consists of a mini display screen attached to a metal
frame, over the right eye. Simplistically put, it gives you a taste of life as
the Terminator from the Schwarzenegger film series.
Information is overlaid on to
the environment that you see around you. So far, so what? Glass has been hyped
as the new frontier in mobile banking. It has also been suggested that it could
revolutionise how tellers deliver service in branch. These are big claims for a
device that will weigh about the same as a normal pair of sunglasses. Can they
be justified?
