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Augmented reality is already entering everyday life. Based on the ubiquitous smartphone, it’s appearing in consumer oriented applications including games, finance and entertainment. In business, cloud access sets AR users free from hardware, and allows businesses to link the data-crunching power of the computer with human judgement and expertise.
Nowhere is this more pronounced than in financial technology. The sector is booming and AR is the next logical step in the process of making finance run on new technology. AR will transfigure both business and consumer finance tech, though in different ways. Let’s start with the business side.
Data visualization and decision making
Data visualization is a major challenge for financial institutions. As the need to rapidly grasp complex trends increases, and the amount of data available becomes greater, AR steps in to bridge the gap between machine data analysis and human understanding.
AR-enabled data visualization can help analysts understand complex data streams and make decisions quickly, for example.
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Building on the company’s history of technological disruption — CitiBank is the company that brought the world the ATM — it’s aimed at traders working within financial institutions, not consumer traders. Having a third dimension to play with makes it possible to model data in more easily comprehensible ways, or to model more complex data sets.
What about the consumer? Is AR altering how the average person experiences the financial technology revolution?
Communication and connection
Wells Fargo has built an AR system that allows consumers to interact with bank tellers in a virtualized space laid over reality. It’s prompted some observers to wonder if AR will replace the physical bank branch. At the same time, Wells Fargo’s offering also includes gamification, featuring full AR games and puzzles. “It allows us to show we are part of the community,” says Jennifer Copeland, vice president and experiential marketing manager at Wells Fargo. “There’s more to us than financial products. We are able to show you a good time.”
The question is whether the convenience of being able to carry out interactions with bank tellers from anywhere is enough to overcome users’ reluctance to embrace new technology; again, Wells Fargo’s offering relies on the Oculus Rift headset.
Using a mixture of smart wearables and the Oculus headset, Polish finance tech company Comarch has created an AR ecosystem for small investors and business owners. Communication takes place via smart watches and smartphones, and data can be presented in virtualized meetings via the headset.
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Source: Venture Beat