5 Ways AR Is Shaping The Future of FinTech

Did you know that the FinTech & banking industries heavily use AR to boost user experiences and increase user loyalty?

Augmented reality creates opportunities for both brands and customers in every area it touches with one question in mind: “How can we provide a better customer experience?”

Until now we have heavily talked about its eCommerce use cases. After all, more than 100 million users using AR in their shopping experiences cannot be wrong at the same time, right?

The outputs of this flare, of course, did not escape the radar of the banking & payments industry. Aiming to make a bigger profit by increasing brand loyalty and providing an excellent service to their customers, companies are working on solutions that we once saw in science fiction movies. In the near future, you may be pinching yourself frequently to make sure you are in real life.

So how can AR make the FinTech industry better?

1. Innovative Payment Methods with AR

Customer experience is the key. Companies are well aware of this and they are trying to answer one question: How can we make shopping easier and more functional for our customers? 

To grasp the change of payment methods that happened in only a short period of time, we can look at the innovations that came after the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to reduce contact for hygiene reasons, cashless and contactless payment methods were soon adopted in the retail industry. Today, companies are looking to offer a "truly contactless experience” by taking into account data privacy and security issues.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to shop and pay just by using your eyes? The video above is from an AR shopping experience provided by Mastercard. Customers can view the product details through AR glasses. The enhanced shopping experience does not end there, all other information about the product is visualized, including price, purchasing options, and even possible product suggestions that would go well with the current one. If the customer decides to purchase the product, the company's own digital platform Masterpass is activated and the purchase is finalized with eye scanning.

Just take a look at the product, and if you like it you can buy it within seconds by looking at it. The future of shopping will be this easy.

2. Enhanced Checkout Experiences

Today, the advancement of technology in the fashion industry is forcing people to keep up with the latest trends in digital payment solutions as well. Let’s assume you decided to buy an outfit for your avatar to wear at a virtual fashion event. When you are paying for the outfit, you are going to need a digital wallet. The common UX/UI of payment and checkout steps will not be enough to address the needs.

MasterCard and Wearality collaboration offers customers a virtual purchasing experience. Customers can discover new products in Priceless, which offers a VR golf experience and purchase them without leaving the virtual world.

Snapchat's interactive fundraiser for World Health Organization (WHO) is also a good and fun example of contactless payment alternatives. Users are given the opportunity to scan their cash through the camera system set to identify 23 currencies. Then, a rich visualization shows how donations to WHO will be used to fight the pandemic. Then, by agreeing to complete the donation, the last step is getting the payment information.

3. 3D Data Visualization

We are living beings in a 3D world and programmed to perceive the world in 3D. Bringing our physical and digital reality into a 3D environment, AR does the same for data transactions, which are at the heart of the FinTech world. Making sense of data, analyzing data, making inferences from data… These are all important steps, but in order for each of them to make sense, one basic step should not be overlooked: Seeing the data. Thank you, Excel for your service so far, but something needs to change for FinTech and the world.

Numbers, columns, pie charts… We are accumulating data every single day in an unstoppable way. Visualization is very important in data complexity in order to analyze the changes in large data groups. Big Data and real-time processing of information both benefit from AR, which makes the process much faster and more meaningful with the visual help it offers. Seeing complex data in a more perceivable way can take the customer experience in FinTech to a whole new level.

4. Fully Personalized Customer Service for Banking

As humans, we are fascinated by visually immersive experiences. Imagine how watching a movie with breathtaking visual effects makes you feel. Although it may sound strange to expect the same in your banking transactions, this might be a part of the future. Chatbots and virtual assistants in mobile banking apps out, AR customer service in. Wouldn’t it be nicer to talk to a real person through AR & holograms rather than trying to explain your problem to a bot?

This is not the only use case for AR in customer service. With the AR applications of banks such as US-based Kony DBX and Australian CommonWealth Bank, customers can find the nearest ATM or branch to their location. They can not only view details like distance but also have the opportunity to make an appointment or perform any additional operations.

In addition, location-based AR applications can help bank customers access real-time information about opportunities such as property sales once the users share their location.

5. High-Security Banking Transactions

Biometric authentication offered by AR increases customer security in the FinTech industry. ATM transactions and personal banking applications can be easily offered to customers from wherever they are, with secure data processing.

Is AR improving the customer experience only for FinTech? Absolutely, no.

AR can improve the customer experience and boost your performance metrics no matter what industry you are in. To take action today to harness the power of AR, you can contact our professional team today and move your brand one step ahead of the competition.