Human Enhancement Technology (HET) is a wearable, non-invasive or invasive technology (including implanted technology) that increases our comfort and can lead to modifications and improvements in the way we have acted so far. This applies to the replication of our typical features, including, for example, organs or body parts (e.g. prostheses), their enrichment through the intensification of intelligence (augmented intelligence) or sensory capabilities, up to giving supernatural features to a human.
Improving a person's physical, motor or cognitive abilities has always attracted interest. With the digital technologies that are now available, overcoming human limitations and their gradual crossing is becoming increasingly possible. As a result of the interaction with technology, our preferences, attitudes and expectations as consumers are changing. Unsurprisingly, Human Enhancement Technology (HET) has the potential to become an interesting alternative for many industries and market sectors, including banking, influencing the way and quality of potential bank customer experiences in the years to come.
This is because consumers' payment habits and customs are changing, especially their preferences in terms of the choice of payment methods and tools. According to the 'World Payments Report 2023' by the Capgemini Research Institute, in 2027 the estimated number of cashless transactions will reach 2.3 trillion, and contactless payments should already be considered one of the most popular forms, as indicated by data from cashless.co.uk. This creates a number of opportunities for the development and popularisation of new forms and tools through which consumers will be able to pay for transactions in the future. Payment chips, implanted under the user's skin, allow this to be done by placing a hand on an authorised payment terminal. Their indisputable advantage is the fact that the consumer always has them on them and never forgets or loses them. However, the fact that they are introduced into their body, thereby altering the spectrum of their characteristics identified with what is human, raises a number of controversies and concerns, including in particular those in the context of ethical and cultural considerations (e.g. accepted values and morals). This may be important for the public acceptance of this form of payment and its possible introduction into the banks' offerings (cost-effectiveness, brand image, etc.).
Research conducted by Dr Dominika Kaczorowska-Spychalska from the Faculty of Management at the University of Lodz and Prof. Łukasz Sulkowski from the Jagiellonian University shows that although we quite often verbalise, as a society, highly emotional and negative attitudes and comments about payment chips (e.g. negation of humanism, denial of divine laws), at the same time the character traits we attribute to their users are basically positive. Interestingly, some differences can be seen between the characteristics attributed to female and male consumers who pay this way. Such qualities as conscientiousness, high intellect or creativity are attributed to both groups of users; however, women, unlike men, are considered to be more focused on their own comfort. According to the respondents, male payment chip users, on the other hand, appeared to be more likely to be irritated and angry, contrary to women. How we evaluate payment chip users turned out to depend on gender, age, as well as the level of technological advancement of the respondents and the level of religiosity they declared.
It should be remembered though that the more consumers get used to the presence of a specific technological solution on the market, the more familiar they become with it and gradually adopt it. They are then pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to them, agreeing to solutions that only a few years earlier they feared, disapproved or resented. This also applies to how they perceive other users-consumers using the technology
– says Dr Dominika Kaczorowska-Spychalska from the Centre for Intelligent Technologies at the Faculty of Management of the University of Lodz.
However, the dynamics of these changes varies and depends on many factors, including our subjective assessment. However, it seems that actual attitudes towards payment chips may not yet be fully realised by us
– she adds.
The study’s detailed findings are discussed in the article "Payment implants as an element of Human Enhancement Technology", Human Technology, vol.19(2), 2023. They are a part of a wider research project on the public acceptance of payment chips in the context of HET issues carried out by the authors over the last three years.