An professional in organizing and main cross-functional groups, Jessica Austin Barker, TIAA’s chief digital and shopper expertise officer, performs a key position within the monetary companies group’s intensive expertise transformation that kicked off two years in the past.
It focuses on digital and rising tech, equivalent to synthetic intelligence, to “elevate the shopper expertise” and set individuals on “the correct path for saving early” for retirement, she says.
“Know-how is the lifeblood of shopper expertise,” Barker asserts in a latest interview with ThinkAdvisor. “Tech allows you to scale, and it’ll permit advisors to scale themselves by offering expertise and instruments.”
TIAA, the retirement plan supplier for establishments largely within the space of upper training, emphasizes “serving to individuals perceive what they have to be ready to dwell by retirement and the way … they will be certain that they’ve some dedication of lifetime revenue [annuities]” throughout these years, Barker says within the interview.
When Thasunda Brown Duckett joined TIAA as chief govt officer in 2021, she created the submit of chief shopper expertise officer. Barker was employed to fill it the next 12 months.
She had had years in an analogous position at Intuit, the place she labored for greater than twenty years and was finally promoted to vp of client group buyer expertise.
Within the interview, Barker explains how she has organized TIAA into functioning in a horizontal mode, versus working silo-style in departments.
The brand new means, she says, offers a “horizontal shopper expertise,” wide-ranging, simpler and with larger effectivity for retirement saving.
Barker spoke by cellphone from San Diego, the place she relies. Listed below are highlights of our dialog.
THINKADVISOR: How does your group accomplice with TIAA’s broad expertise perform?
JESSICA AUSTIN BARKER: Very intently. Know-how is the lifeblood of shopper expertise.
TIAA goes by a large expertise transformation, and we’re making great progress.
We’re addressing our expertise basis to get to an amazing place, whereas on the similar time leapfrogging and investing in emergent expertise capabilities in order that we’re capable of apply these to resolve issues for our clients.
We’re investing in areas that characteristic expertise, whether or not it’s the digital expertise, the place we are able to reap the benefits of the metaverse, or it’s leveraging large-language fashions and AI.
How does digital make it simpler for individuals to plan their retirement?
Digital will assist attain extra Individuals. Tech allows you to scale, and it’ll permit advisors to scale themselves by offering expertise and instruments.
With tech, now they will spend their time focusing extra on among the actual worth they will deliver reasonably than taking on their time with guide [operations].
So it’ll permit us, over time, to allow extra environment friendly working experiences and a platform for many who are advising in individual.
However it’s also possible to deliver that very same type of recommendation to all people in a digital means with training and instruments that permit situations which might be customized.
What are the challenges?
There are issues which might be already beneath means. The most important hurdle is getting the eye and engagement of individuals.
The chance that we’re centered on is training and serving to have interaction individuals in how doing a little bit [saving] at the moment to make such a distinction in serving to get individuals on the correct path for saving early.
When did TIAA’s transformation begin?
When Thasunda [Duckett] joined as our new CEO. Largely, our transformation journey with respect to shopper expertise began after I got here onboard.
My position was a brand new one which Thasunda created to raise shopper expertise.
It’s to advance our digital capabilities and lead and orchestrate the “horizontal shopper expertise” to indicate that we’re getting out of what organizations can fall into, which is extra of the siloed and channel focus solely.
