19. Conclusions & Future Directions

Hopefully by the time of you have finished reading this text and book you feel a little more confident and comfortable about both the emerging technologies themselves as well as the applications and implementation issues that may arise along the way. No single book or manuscript is ever going to be able to cover or effectively address the full scope of how technology or other changes will be changing the profession going forward. The buzzwords of the day do seem to focus on technology and technology applications, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and other automation software packages, but that does not mean that these will always be the force driving disruption and change in the financial services landscape. As mentioned previously, if the clock was dialed back to the early or even mid-1990s the terms that are driving change and innovation throughout the business landscape would be more related to the internet or cellular technology.