Digitalization in my own field of expertise
I have been working for ten years in the financial sector. During those years, working life has become significantly digitalized. When I started working, a lot of things were done on paper, and customers came to the office to be served. Customer service was available at the office every day. Nowadays the service is only available during limited hours and by appointment. Today daily services are mostly handled online as self-service, whereas ten years ago all services were provided in person.
There was hardly any talk about data protection. All documents and applications were made on paper, and the newsletters and brochures were given to the customer in a written version. Nowadays, almost without exception, all service providers offer and even require customers to implement paperless services. Likewise, all applications are made in electronic form. In many places, there is no longer any possibility to submit applications on paper. My job involves a lot of customer meetings. Nowadays, meetings are handled via Teams or another online platform. Remote meetings started when Covid started and since then we have not really returned face to face meeting at the same volume as before. Most customer meetings today are held either by phone or video meeting. It is possible that the customer may not be met face to face once during the entire customer relationship.
It has been noticed that things can also be handled remotely, which saves a lot of other resources and makes things more efficient. At the beginning of my career, no one worked remotely but nowadays it is very common to work from home for a part of the week or even the entire week. I personally find digital tools very useful, and they make my work a lot easier. On the other hand, I am not such a big fan of a remote work because I miss social interaction during my working days. Exchanging ideas and consulting with colleagues, as well as having a free-form conversations, is personally very meaningful to me during the day.
I believe that digitalization will increase even more in the future in my field. There are many opportunities to utilize digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (later in the text will be marked AI). AI is already being utilized in customer service, but in the future, AI will certainly be used to process various applications.
The risks of open digital society
I remember when GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into force in May 2018 and the regulation began to be applied. In my field employees were prepared to the upcoming change well in advance. They were trained on the matter, and the upcoming changes were discussed. The impact of GDPR was immediately visible in my work when clients requested information regarding their data, and working methods had to be adapted to the new rules. The requests for information had been prepared in advance, but requests popularity still surprised and kept many busy.
Working methods changed a little after the regulation came into force. A lot of attention began to be paid what customer data was stored and what information and words were written in customer contacts, because the customer had the right to see the information recorded about them. On the other hand, the regulation brought many benefits, and for example, it was easier to build a relationship of trust with the customer because the customer knew how their data would be processed. The regulation also forced the development of appropriate archiving methods, which made work easier when information was stored in one place and could be found in a specific location. Earlier documents were not archived in any consistent way and information could be lost when it was behind one person.
There are also many security-related risks in everyday life, because information security issues are not just related to working life. Nowadays almost everything is handled electronically, for examples payment and identification. If you lose your cell phone, you’re in big trouble. People carry all their personal information with them on a small device all the time which brings with it a significant risk of information falling into the wrong hands. Data breaches have also increased, and data criminals are becoming more and more professional, and scams are becoming more difficult to identify. One of the risks of digitalization is vulnerability. For example, some companies can completely collapse or even cease operations if they encounter IT problems. Also legislation does not always keep up with technology, which can cause problems and risks.
Potential benefits of AI
I asked ChatGPT about digitalization in financial sector. I got same answers that I had observed and thought myself. AI also knew about its disadvantages and threats in this field. AI is a very useful tool and addition, but it cannot be used as a mere source of information. I personally would see AI at its best as an innovative tool, but not as a search engine for factual information. The more complex and in-depth questions you ask AI, the poorer the quality of the answers becomes. I have sometimes received wrong answers from AI.
It is worrying if some people use AI as their only source of information and blindly trust the answers it provides. I personally use artificial intelligence for example when I need ideas about topics or methods of operation, and I don’t use AI as a search engine. I see the use of artificial intelligence at its best as a tool for generating ideas. AI is an excellent addition, but not the only tool.
Self evaluation
Digitalization is constantly evolving and increasing. Digitalization has many benefits but also threats. Companies must be constantly aware of changes in digitalization and be prepared to keep up with the changes and if you don’t keep up with change, you will be left behind in the market. Digitalization has made my work easier over the years, because some tasks have been eliminated completely. On the other hand, digitalization has led to a decrease in jobs over the years, and the pace will certainly only accelerate as people are replaced by AI. I feel that I am very used to digital tools and functions for my age, while older colleagues have had a more challenging time adapting to the changes.
I grew up in a world of digitalization and it is part of my everyday life. Writing this assignment reminded me of how much things have changed in the last ten years. This made me think about how dependent we are on digitalization today, when life and work used to be completely different. Nowadays, I must be much more vigilant both at work and in my free time. Digitalization affects everyone today, not just people working in the IT sector, for example.
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