Visions for the Future: How the Apple Vision Pro Could Herald a New Era for Fintech

Fintech is an industry continually taking finance to new heights with its dedication to digital transformation and innovations geared toward disrupting traditional sector processes. With the recent launch of Apple’s flagship Vision Pro mixed reality headset, we may soon see another technology driving growth in fintech. 

Reality technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality are all capable of improving a fintech sector that’s still seeking to bring fresh convenience to customers in a post-Covid-19 landscape. 

With fintech projected to grow into a $1.5 trillion industry by 2030, it’s clear that the sector will lean heavily on the adoption of emerging technology to secure such rapid growth. 

It’s likely that cutting-edge technology like Apple’s Vision Pro will play a major role in aiding fintech on its path to becoming a $1.5tn industry, and the product’s ability to introduce brand-new fintech innovations to customers will be crucial in achieving more widespread acceptance. 

“Today marks the beginning of a new era for computing. Just as the Mac introduced us to personal computing, and iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro introduces us to spatial computing,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Built upon decades of Apple innovation, Vision Pro is years ahead and unlike anything created before — with a revolutionary new input system and thousands of groundbreaking innovations.”

The combination of reality technology and spacial computing can herald many new opportunities in the world of fintech. So let’s take a deeper look at how mixed reality has the power to drive the continued evolution of the industry and the quality of services available to both customers and enterprises: 

The Next Generation of Payments

Crucially, mixed reality technology can bring revolutionary change to the customer experience in fintech. 

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw circumstances rapidly increase the adoption of cashless and contactless payment methods throughout retail. Today, fintech is seeking ways to grow this further by leveraging a ‘truly contactless experience’ by incorporating more comprehensive account data privacy and security features. 

Key industry players like Mastercard are already working on ways in which customers can make payments by using their eyes alone. This means that customers will be able to view the product through augmented reality glasses and explore its relevant information like price, purchasing options, and AI-powered purchasing suggestions to go with the product on show. 

When the customer decides to make a purchase, they can confirm the transaction with a retina scan, which verifies their identity automatically and connects them to their personal Masterpass wallet. 

Immersive Educational Tools

For fintech to truly reach its potential, financial literacy is essential. With many customers lacking education in critical areas like investing and modern fintech tools, it can be problematic for the industry’s growth. 

One of the key issues in this regard is that financial literacy can be regarded as too dull to retain the attention of younger investors who are used to only interacting with their bank accounts as and when required. 

Mixed reality can help in this regard and deliver more immersive financial education for younger customers. This can open the door to interactive gamification features to help users to learn about complex areas like investing and trading in a more valuable way. 

Already, we’re seeing companies like City using Microsoft HoloLens headsets to provide traders with holographic workstations. This technology can be taken to new levels of engagement with the Apple Vision Pro, where users can view richly detailed technical analysis charts in real-time to better learn about stocks and trade more accurately. 

Sending Bank Branches Virtual

In a move that was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, more traditional bank branches have closed in recent years due to the increasingly online status of the industry. 

This opens up an opportunity for mixed reality to make online banking a more immersive experience by establishing virtual banks. If customers require service that extends beyond the capabilities of their online banking app, they can visit a branch in VR just by putting on their headsets. 

With the successful integration of biometric identification, customers may soon be capable of accessing the same services as they would in person but exclusively in virtual reality. 

For fintech firms, this can be a mutually beneficial experience, and the cost of domains to host these engaging reality services is likely to be far more cost-effective than keeping more brick-and-mortar branches open for longer. 

Embracing the Age of Mixed Reality Fintech

The arrival of the Apple Vision Pro points to a future of mixed reality fintech that’s edging closer to providing tangible change for the industry. 

As technologies continue to evolve, we’re likely to see VR and AR use cases emerge throughout the world of fintech, and for firms seeking to position themselves at the forefront of innovation, it’s certainly worth exploring the capabilities of this latest generation of mixed reality hardware. 

The Covid-19 pandemic may have helped to accelerate the emergence of fintech, but it will be complementary reality technology that takes it to the next level.