Hess said he believes the IoT offers an opportunity to deliver relevant, timely information that helps people keep pace with the speed of life.

“There are some potential avenues where I think the Internet of Things will add absolute value for consumers,” Hess said.

On the other hand, the risk remains that people could be overwhelmed by too much information. The challenge for credit unions and other financial institutions will be to determine how consumers want to consume financial services through these devices, as well as relevant content for each device.

“When it's time for your financial institution to extend existing financial services capabilities to the Internet of Things, consider what types of capabilities are practical for this device and how consumers will want to access them,” Hess said.

Hess said some devices may not be applicable to financial services at all, at least in the near term, while others lend themselves quite well to the delivery of financial information or transactions.

For example, most accountholders are unlikely to want to set up a budget from a refrigerator door screen, but they may want to check balances or pay bills there, he said.

Fiserv said it is continuing to evaluate the impact developments such as the IoT have on financial services. This includes testing technology, such as a prototype of skills for the Amazon Echo, and gauging consumer demand through research and focus groups.

Fiserv participated in the 2016 PYMNTS/Alexa Challenge in which 12 teams and 14 companies demonstrated how Alexa, the name for Amazon Echo, voice-activated technology could reimagine how consumers interact with its payments and financial services solutions providers. Alexa is a 9.25-inch tall cylinder speaker with a seven-piece microphone array. It responds to the names Alexa, Amazon and Echo.

Fiserv participated in this demonstration, showcasing Alexa's voice banking skills and connecting the Amazon Echo to live Fiserv digital banking and payment services. The demo video won the Best Use of the Technology award for showing how to use Alexa to advance money management and movement at the point of thought.

Hess said a great deal of technology lends itself to development around the ubiquity of particular functions and features. Biometrics, for example, did not test well with Fiserv's financial institution customers back in 2009, but once Apple introduced Touch ID and people became more comfortable with finger scanning, adoption and usage grew.

“A new device like Echo could be used in daily life for a person to check their financial status, what bills are due, their balances and how they are doing financially,” Hess noted. “There are some valid use cases so when we go out and test it with users you're going to find that people are comfortable doing voice-based banking, when they weren't a couple of years ago.”

Fiserv's Alexa demo video, shown in this screenshot, won the Best Use of the Technology award at the 2016 PYMNTS/Alexa Challenge. The video shows how to use Alexa to advance money management and movement.

Will people, consumers or small businesses apply for a loan using their refrigerator or through their Amazon Echo?

“Probably not anytime in the near term, but light bites of information delivered to where I want it, I think is something you are going to see,” Hess said.

He added proactive alerts and notifications that are pushed out to all devices could blend into that as well.

“The Internet of Things is something people are coming to expect even if they do not know it is called the Internet of Things,” Hess maintained. “I think people will adopt them at their own pace and as they are comfortable with them.”

Where does Fiserv come in? The company said it wants to gauge its financial institution customers' interests in this innovative technology. Hess said when Fiserv launched its Alexa skills demo, one of its largest credit union clients asked about its current availability.

“We built it so somebody would actually buy it,” he said.

Based on the interest from that large credit union, Fiserv plans to try to get its voice activation technology to market, either in a pilot for that inquiring credit union, or in full production. Hess added it is not far from being production ready right now, because it already works with an actual system connected to its payment and digital banking platforms.

In addition to creating a way to bank via an Amazon Echo device and Touch ID, Fiserv is testing other biometrics products, such as eye and facial recognition products.

“Part of the innovation process is gauging feasibility, viability and interest by both consumers and financial institutions,” Hess said. “It is really important for us or anyone else that runs [an innovation program] to establish that a culture of failing is OK. If half of the things we work on do not fail, we are not trying enough things.”

Consumer acceptance is hard to predict, he added.

“There are companies like Apple that can actually drive adoption, because they launch products in an elegant and useful way,” Hess said. “A lot of it is trial and error.”