The Council for Emerging Technologies (CET) convened last week in Washington, D.C., bringing together the top minds from the financial services industry for an exciting, in-depth discussion of innovation for banks, insurers and health payers.
Members of the council include innovation leaders from top banks and insurance companies in the United States. They shared their visions for success and explored ways to leverage Samsung’s ecosystem to support their strategies. The meeting included a visit to Samsung’s Washington D.C. Executive Briefing Center, where council members got a firsthand look at our company’s transformative solutions for business.
It was an incredible event where Samsung and the council’s member companies engaged in a series of lively discussions about not just embracing the innovation opportunities in front of us but actually making them happen.
A vision for the future
We were inspired by a series of excellent presentations, starting with Don Callahan, senior adviser to Samsung, who examined the opportunities that 5G will create for banks and financial institutions. 5G is not just another iteration of the networking protocol, he explained. It’s a huge leap forward that will help eliminate barriers to time, space and device density. It will enable us to build intelligence networks that deliver powerful, personalized insights to customer-facing employees 24/7, drawing on artificial intelligence (AI) and multiple cloud environments.
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Don painted a vision of a future where a financial wellness app could provide dynamic, comprehensive, risk-adjusted financial guidance — in much the same way that navigation apps enable faster, safer driving.
He also discussed the value of innovation culture, suggesting that progress occurs fastest when a business is willing to embrace a culture of experimentation. “It helps to recognize that there is a high chance of failure in a lot that you do and get comfortable with failing forward,” he told the council. It’s best to start small, especially with your leading-edge projects, and prove that a use case works before rolling it out broadly.
The voice of the customer
While the Samsung team shared some industry insights of its own, our first job at CET was to learn from our finance industry colleagues at the table. Taher Behbehani, Samsung Electronics America’s SVP and general manager of mobile B2B, shared a working draft of his presentation for the upcoming Samsung Developers Conference (SDC) and engaged council members in a lively discussion about software development and the role of mobile technology in finance.
We also updated the council on our product road map. Jennifer Langan, director of product marketing for mobile B2B, explained that technology in finance and other industries is becoming much more end user-driven. Many employees now have better technology at home than they do on the job, and businesses are focusing on workplace transformation to address this inequity.
The council also heard from Samsung VP of Digital Health Natalie Schneider, who explained the increasing use of remote patient monitoring to empower patients outside the hospital and reduce the incidence of readmissions. She said that 60 percent of Americans live with chronic conditions, and wearable technology can help them live healthier lives.
Sang Ahn, Samsung’s VP of content and services and head of partnerships, delivered an overview of Samsung Pay. He explained that Samsung Pay has transformed mobile payments through our proprietary magnetic secure transmission (MST) , which simplifies payment by simulating the effect of a credit card swipe. Samsung can deliver strategic value by enabling money sending, cloud payments and digital identity.
The council is the first to see the latest in Samsung solutions and products — both existing and conceptual — that open the door on the art of what’s possible. We demoed the multidevice experience through interaction with the Samsung Flip and mobility to improve employee collaboration. For the customer and associate interaction, we demonstrated the mobile banker, where a single Tab S4 can replace both the digital account-opening customer device as well as the banker desktop by using Samsung DeX. We know from past sessions with CET that wearables are a hot topic in banking and insurance. This year, we brought Samsung SDS Vantage wearable notification platform to the group. Council members also got a hands-on review of the newest Fold device and its groundbreaking technology for top financial services executives.
Engaging for innovation
Speaking for my colleagues on the Samsung Finance team, we are proud to facilitate this far-reaching discussion. Samsung has built out a formidable B2B mobile organization that engages deeply with retailers, hospitals, law enforcement, the military and other verticals. Samsung is particularly strong in finance, because this vertical sits at the intersection of our core capabilities of security and customer experience. In hosting the CET, we are carrying out Samsung’s mission of engaging at a personal level with innovation leaders across the business spectrum and collecting valuable feedback as one of the mechanisms to influence and shape our technology road map.
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