The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives (Exponential Technology Series)

by Peter H. Diamandis

A different example is the Smart Finance Group. Created in 2013 to serve China’s massive unbanked and underbanked population, Smart Finance uses an AI to comb a user’s personal data—social media data, smartphone data, educational and employment history, etc.—to generate a reliable credit score nearly instantly. With this method, they can approve a peer-to-peer loan in under eight seconds, including microloans to the unbanked. And the results speak for themselves. Roughly 1.5 to 2 million loans are taken out every month via Smart Finance. AI is also making an impact on investing. Traditionally, this game was played by the wealthy because it’s a game of data. Financial advisors had the best data, but you needed to be wealthy enough to afford a financial advisor to access it. And advisors are picky. Since it can take more time to manage small investors than large investors, many wealth managers have investment minimums in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars. But AI has leveled the playing field. Today, robo-advisors like Wealthfront and Betterment are bringing wealth management to the masses. Via an app, clients answer a series of initial questions about risk tolerances, investment goals, and retirement aims, and then algorithms take over. Actually, algorithms have already taken over. Every day, roughly 60 percent of all market trades are made by computer. When the market turns volatile, this can climb to as high as 90 percent. All robo-advisors have done is make th...