Millennials Pushing IoT at the ATM

My projections are that ATMs within the next five years will shift significantly to integrating with IoT platforms, and shift their transactions more into the ‘frictionless’ transaction category. This one-click or frictionless transaction movement in large part could be that millennials are increasingly looking for experiences in their outings, and ATM’s can play a part in that process to get millennials, or any customer, a seamless transition to pay for their newest experience. I remember getting my first ATM card when I was ten years old. The concept was relatively easy for me to understand; the year was 1998 and I have always had a card since then that allowed me easy access to cash. I don’t necessarily call myself an early adopter of new technology, but I would say that I, like most of my generation, am comfortable with the movement to more accessibility to ‘one-click’ or seemingly ‘frictionless’ payments. In large part, social media on its many platforms has already convinced or educated millennials that they would love a certain experience so the quicker ATMs can get people their cash, the better! The idea of frictionless payments has evolved since the first smartphone was released in the summer of 2007. Now, just over 10 years later, you can simply tap your watch, phone, or tablet near a payment reader to pay for goods or services. In turn, consumers are becoming more and more comfortable with the needed technology to accomplish these types of transactions. ATM’s will need to shift as people rely more and more heavily on easier transactions where the physical credit card is not present. I am an advocate for these quicker payment options, as there are even fewer steps to using ApplePay or SamsungPay than even swiping or inserting your card, but cash is not going away any time soon. In many experience settings, people still are accustomed to and plan on using cash, but they want it in increasingly easier ways. It will merely help milk the cash cow for ATM operators if ATM’s adapt to and use more technology improved by IoT and other industries. The fact of the matter is that IoT is rapidly growing and the movement is upon us within IoT to capitalize on core competencies ATM Operators have. It will be imperative to leverage IoT capabilities at the ATM to gain further insights into the millennial generation and further maximize the potential of a single ATM location. It is estimated that investment in the IoT market alone will grow from $157B in 2016 to $457B by 2020, and also by 2020, about 4 billion people will be connected to the Internet, with 30 billion connected machines. With that type of investment and growth in IoT in the next few years, it will be imperative to look for more opportunities to create even easier experiences at the ATM.