KUALA LUMPUR: With banking processes being increasingly driven by advanced technology, the future of work in the industry has come under the spotlight.

The general view is that the transformation would lead to a drastic reduction in the human workforce in the sector.

But not all experts agree, saying that as automation takes over, new roles will be created.

Thus, it is the composition skill set required for bank employees that will be vastly different, said Deloitte Risk Advisory partner Anthony Tai, who does not think that the headcount in the industry will be significantly affected by digital disruption.

“The skill set today may not be relevant five years later in the same industry,” he told The Edge Financial Daily in an interview. “When we talk about digital banking, the talent required are people who understand data, and how to use data, and draw conclusions out of it, to find a way to give customers a very good experience.

“That is what bank customers are looking for nowadays. They want customised, bespoke experience. They don’t want to be just one of the persons in the crowd; they want something tailored to their needs,” he added.

Therefore, Tai said to remain relevant in the banking industry, bank employees have to be adaptive to the changes in the industry.

“The pace of factors that affect a bank changes very fast, so banks’ talent has to change their mindset to adapt to the changes in the market, learning and upskilling themselves.

“In future, the talent who can be successful are those who have this attitude of learning, and fast enough to adapt to the changes, or risk falling behind,” he opined.

Citing a survey by Deloitte, Tai said the talent that will do well in the future banking industry have traits such as being empathic, persuasive and more people-centric.

Meanwhile, Deloitte Asia Pacific risk analytics leader Mark Woodley, who was also present at the interview, said the existing bank workforce has to be reskilled to be more technology- and data-savvy to remain relevant in the banking business.

Nonetheless, Woodley said technology advancement has its own risks for banks to address.

“Because if we are getting the computer to make decisions which previously was done by humans, there is still a risk of the computer advising you in a bad way. So assurance over that new technology, whether it is AI (artificial intelligence), machine learning or RPA (robotic process automation), is critical.

“So the new internal audit [for banks] is going to be assurance over new technology. If we put in AI or robotics to improve the process, how do we know that it is actually working?” he said.

In a decade, Woodley said, the banking industry is expected to see wider adoption of technology to enhance banks’ ability to detect customers’ behaviour and potential misconduct, either by human or computer.

“The use of technology will be enhanced in financial services institutions; the ability of financial services institutions to detect behaviour is going to be enhanced. It is still going to be a lot of human intervention, but I think the ability to detect would be better.

“The human element is still going to be very much needed to report, validate and examine what is being observed, for upfront detection, because right now there is no a lot of upfront detection. It is mainly fixing problems. I don’t think we can get rid of the human element,” he said.