How AI Is Changing the War on Friction

Friction. It’s the enemy of every digital product manager and customer on the planet. Friction is what sits between a customer and their objective. In Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), friction traditionally includes all the navigational obstacles — extra clicks, fields to complete, load times, etc. — that slow down the user. The healthy obsession on guiding a customer effortlessly to the place a business wants them to go, and the removal of every unnecessary obstacle along the way, can be referred to as the War on Friction.

While the battlegrounds in this war have been relatively stagnant for many years, Conversational AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) present an opportunity for businesses to move their focus upstream from flows in web sites and apps, to places previously unreachable. This has created new battlegrounds with strategic opportunities.

Today’s Front Line — The GUI

• Time: When the customer arrives
• Location: Any web site or mobile app

The front lines in this particular longstanding battle are found when the customer visits a web site or app. Whether the goal is user registration, purchase completion, or content consumption — minimizing the friction that sits between entry point and task completion drives UX improvements and desired business outcomes. However, a presumption that we can’t begin fighting against friction until the customer reaches an app or web site perilously ignores the ample upstream friction that can now be attacked in the advent of Conversational AI and the IoT.

New Front Line #1 — The Moment of Thought

• Time: Whenever the customer has a thought or experiences a need
• Location: Wherever the customer is (including offline) when they have the thought or need

A new front line in the War on Friction has opened up at the moment a customer has a thought, but has yet to take action. At this moment, the customer can potentially choose from among several options — e.g., go to mobile app, call the call center, etc — to find a solution.

Increasingly, customers can also leverage Conversational AI to “just ask” instead of having to navigate through physical actions. And they can do so in lots of places, instead of at just one or two destination GUIs. The upstream friction of locating a device, unlocking it, finding an app, logging in, etc. can often be eliminated entirely for some simple use cases.

Amazon realized early on that fighting friction “when people arrive at our web site” was limiting and began moving upstream to the moment of thought by creating products such as Dash buttons and Alexa. With Amazon Dash Buttons, customers who run out of detergent in the laundry room can press a nearby button to order more for an experience with minimal friction between the moment of thought and action. With Amazon Alexa, customers can similarly “just ask” without the friction involved in getting to, and navigating through, a GUI.

At Capital One, we’re creating our own tools to fight this battle in the War on Friction. We launched the Capital One Alexa skill to enable customers to “just ask” about their bank and credit card accounts verbally. And Eno, the first SMS chatbot from a U.S. bank, enables customers to “just ask” about their bank and credit card accounts by texting.

New Front Line #2: Pre-Thought

• Time: The moment the customer potentially has an unrealized need
• Location: Wherever the customer is (including offline) when they potentially have the need

Let’s face it, busy lifestyles and endless distractions often lead people to make less than timely, ill-informed decisions.

But an AI doesn’t get busy, it doesn’t get distracted, and (in target state) it has access to, and an ability to process, much more information than a person. An AI can use historical data and machine learning to proactively let customers know when they have a need (e.g., probably running out of laundry detergent based on previous purchasing behavior), and offer to place an order in advance of the person discovering it for themselves.

At Capital One, we’re training Eno, to proactively help customers better manage their money. Whether it’s current features like reminding customers about payment due dates - or potential future features like anticipating when they’re likely to hit their credit limit based on spending patterns and available credit - Eno is being designed to help customers and to take some of the stress out of money management.

By pairing AI-driven insights with the conversational interface, customers can take action with minimal friction. AI can relieve humans from having to track things that are easily monitored by an AI, while also leaving them in complete control.

The Road Ahead

GUIs will remain supremely valuable in the near term despite three limitations:

• Being necessarily tethered to devices with screens.
• Requiring customers to use their hands to navigate.
• Requiring customers to figure them out.

Conversational AI and IoT devices will increasingly allow us to move beyond those limitations by creating more interaction points with less upstream friction; materially evolving the human-machine interaction model in a positive way.

For the first time in years, the balance of power in the War on Friction is about to shift. In 2018, we expect companies to leverage AI and the conversational interface to make significant progress in the upstream battlefronts above. In test after test we have seen that less friction equals better customer and business outcomes — and companies who remove friction from the moments of thought and need will create strategic advantages in the War on Friction.

Special thanks to @Steph_Hay, @katyaandresen and @reddesignhead for assisting with this post.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: These opinions are those of the author. Unless noted otherwise in this post, Capital One is not affiliated with, nor is it endorsed by, any of the companies mentioned. All trademarks and other intellectual property used or displayed are th ownership of their respective owners. This article is © 2017 Capital One.