“Start with a device, such as a Brita filtered water pitcher, provide a power source (such as a battery), add the ability to communicate (such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), install a sensor (in this case, the ability for the water pitcher to measure how much water has been poured since the last time the filter was replaced), and add intelligence (in the form of a microprocessor) and you have the very definition of a connected device.” That was the explanation that Tom Davis, SVP Finance and Technology at CSCU, gave to start off his keynote session at CSUC’s recently held 2017 Annual Conference that focused on the future of payments. The Brita Infinity water pitcher is just one example of a connected device. The number of connected devices is expected to pass 50 billion by the year 2020, according to Davis.

Davis told the audience, made up of more than 350 plus credit union leaders that other changes they will be seeing that impact their business are APIs, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence. “APIs are simply a way for software systems to communicate with other software systems,” Davis explained. “The linkage to the topic of payments is that we will see more financial institutions allowing trusted third party innovators access to member account information for services such as personal financial management (PFM) and single view account aggregation, such as mint.com.”

Regarding the amount of data that is being generated, accumulated, and stored in the cloud, Davis pointed out that 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each minute, Google processes 2.4 million queries per minute. Over 1 trillion photos are taken each year, mostly on smartphones. Every industry has its big data. “For a typical Fortune 1000 company, just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than $65 million additional net income according to Forbes,” Davis said.

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