Technology is a great thing—it makes our lives better by adding real value and efficiency to our daily tasks. I travel often and the time I save checking into a flight on my phone or requesting an Uber while I’m still on the tarmac is invaluable. I really appreciate all the minutes technology gives me back.
But as helpful as technology can be, it sometimes throws us a curveball. Let me share a recent experience. This past Christmas, my wife and I had a long list of holiday to-dos. There were social parties, and kids programs and family expectations…and a sweet Christmas wish list my 9-year-old was anxious to share. Of my four children, the caboose is her own brand.
The challenge was clear—make Christmas magical while also preserving the sanity of all involved. Enter Amazon Prime. What a perfect tool for busy parents during the holidays, and every day for that matter.
Proceed to the punch line, our savvy 9-year-old is into everything. She quickly uncovered that her Christmas presents lined up exactly with our family’s December Amazon purchases.
Then came one of the questions every parent dreads: “Daddy, are you Santa Claus?”
Luckily, my spur-of-the-moment response, “Santa Claus has an Amazon distribution network,” was enough to satisfy her curiosity.
However, the fact that technology revealed secrets about Santa to my daughter reminds me that, sometimes, efficiency isn’t always the goal. Technology for the sake of technology is actually problematic. It adds complexity, when its goal should be to simplify.
The things that are most important in life are best handled by real people. As technological innovation continues to transform the way we live, there will always be certain jobs and roles that only human beings can fill.
In our industry, human financial advisors will never become obsolete, even though technology has changed the way investors prefer to make and monitor investments, as well as the ways in which they interact with their advisors.
The shortcomings of technology were on full display during the market volatility we experienced at the beginning of February. The websites of two of the largest robo-advisors, Betterment and Wealthfront, crashed on Monday, February 5, when the U.S. stock market experienced a steep decline.