Courtesy of our regular fintech and payments news wrap-ups, here are our “words of the week” for 2023. Want to be a finfluencer (see No. 11)? Try working a few into your vocabulary in 2024.
Lisness - Luxury travel company Black Tomato coined the term that represents a “paradigm shift” in how to think about “bleisure or workations” - in which travelers plan a trip for leisure first, and create time to work.
Navigate - The last two years gave rise to a new star when it comes to nautical business metaphors, The New York Times reports, with its use nearly doubling in the last quarter of 2022 compared with 2019.
A.I. generated text - The product of large language models like ChatGPT, that makes choices based on “complex math and huge amounts of data. So much that it often produces text that is both coherent and accurate.” This New York Times article walks through how it generates that text– and the many issues it could present.
Super app - A bundle of a wide range of virtual products, services and financial capabilities rolled into one platform. WeChat is an example of a super app. It combines all sorts of things consumers use in their daily life with messaging and payment capabilities. Users in China use WeChat to message friends, buy groceries, hail a ride, book doctor’s appointments and much more.
VUCA - Albeit not a word, the acronym/phrase meaning “Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous” was coined by the US Army War College to describe the world at the end of the Cold War.
CFBR - “Commenting for better reach,” is now a popular tag in social media posts to bolster engagement and favoritism by algorithms.
Cash digitization - Converting cash to electronic currency, such as a card, something Axios details in this article on “Reverse ATMs take bills, dispense cards as stores go cashless.”
Toggling tax- The amount of time employees lose when jumping between tabs and apps – which Harvard Business Review puts at five working days a year, according to Entrepreneur.
Regenerative tourism - Focusing on the supply side of tourism, it’s a term used to describe travel plans aimed at leaving places better than travelers met them. It involves repairing and replenishing relationships with the places we travel, according to Regenerative Travel, a community of independently-owned boutique hotels dedicated to creating positive social and environmental impact.
Instant payments - As facilitated by the FedNow Service, payments that clear and settle instantly, 24/7 a day, 365 days a year, with funds immediately available to the receiver. For example, a worker could have instant access to the money in their paycheck or the ability to pay a bill on the due date and avoid fees.
Finfluencer - People who use their social media platform to share videos that cover personal experiences, tips, opinions, and advice about investing, budgeting, financial trends, and the economy - giving broader access to knowledge, but carrying some concerns about their credentials for dispensing advice.
Smart contracts - An application of blockchain technology, they are programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met, such as automating the execution of a contract or workflow, according to IBM.
Micropayment - Forrester predicts that the small value payment structure – by which, for instance, consumers could pay online to access a single article instead of a subscription – could be big in 2024 if bank-based payments gain more traction.