In the banking sector, what skill set will be required for human advisors to succeed in a more digitalized industry ?

Banking history demonstrates that the banking sector and its banks have evolved over time by offering new products and services and adopting new technologies. The arising of newcomers such as FinTech or other non-financial institutions on the market are driving revenues and margins down and make it more challenging for companies to succeed. One is unsure about how far those new technologies will change banking in the future. Client’s interactions with the bank and his needs will highly depend on the generation he was born in. Next generations are tech-savvy and do not go to a bank office anymore. They prefer using banking applications on their smartphones instead and are awaiting from these to work as easily and user-friendly as music and shopping applications. The ever-evolving world will force banks to adopt new technologies and human advisors will sooner than expected need to collaborate with them to provide the greatest service to clients. What skills will human advisors need to survive in a more digitalized environment? This research paper describes the challenges of upskilling the current workforce and the required skills needed in the future. Employees must be ready to tackle change and be upskilled or reskilled in due time. It is an issue for banks to find the talents that have the skills to deal with new technologies or to upskill existing talents to bridge the gap between current and emerging skills. Such skills will be needed to best acquire the new tech-savvy generations clients as well. Five theoretical findings and fifteen interviews with managers of various banks have been analyzed to answer the problematic. Results are relatively similar between theoretical and personal findings. People are clear: human and social skills remain essential for human advisors, if not more valuable than ever next to machines. It includes leadership, emotional intelligence as well as collaboration and adaptability. In addition, high cognitive skills such as complex problem solving and creativity are in high demand. Basic digital skills complete the human advisor skill set. Even though machines are granted an ever-increasing importance, human advisors will still hold a significant position in the banking industry. Clients from all generations are more tech-savvy and will definitely transfer some wealth to less costly FinTech or robo-advisor solutions. However, they will look for people they trust for important financial matter such as acquiring a property, tax advisory and estate planning