Conversational AI is the Face of Modern Banking
The age of the high street bank is rapidly drawing to a close, the financial services industry continues to move towards total digitisation. In this new world of virtual finance, Conversational AI is perfectly aligned to become the new layer between customers and their banks, providing a powerful experience driven by the customer.
The banking and finance industry have been undergoing a period of rapid digitisation in attempt to keep up with changing customer demands. The old system no longer works, physical branches are not able to satisfy the rising expectations of customers looking for answers and advice on demand, at any time and from anywhere. The most popular channels for financial services today are all digital, with mobile banking in particular leading as the channel of choice for most consumers.
This phenomenon means banks and financial service providers need to find new ways to communicate with their customers in the digital realm. This has positioned the industry perfectly for the mass implementation of Conversational AI. Currently most implementations come in the form of simplistic client facing chatbots. However, it is by connecting conversational applications to back end applications that allow for complex calculations and transactions, the true power of Conversational AI can be harnessed. It is possible to effectively allows the entire customer face of the bank to be run by an AI. Hence, creating a truly untethered banking experience that caters to every customer on demand.
For instance, data collected by the AI can be used to create contextualised recommendations, content and offers for customers, allowing marketing to truly offer each customer a personalised experience. Furthermore, Conversational interfaces can be trained to generate and qualify leads, which can radically increase the efficiency of sales teams by completely automating the most mundane parts of their workload. Moreover, these same virtual agents can be trained to detect signs of fraud, automatically flagging malicious users and relaying the issue the appropriate department further adding a critical level of security.
With such a clear value proposition the challenge now for leaders who wish to get ahead is to move beyond the simplistic implementations being deployed by most financial service providers and onto more complex conversational interfaces. The goal is to create truly intelligent digital faces for their institutions that meet their customers’ demands. This includes virtual financial advisors that can provide customers with thorough analysis on their financial situations, aiding them in their planning as well as introducing them to relevant products that correspond with attaining their financial goals.
With the old guild of Conversational AI technologies and vendors this would have been unthinkable, but now thanks to the rise of advanced enterprise grade platforms the technical hurdles that once inhibited more complex conversations and utilisations can be overcome. Platforms such as Mesh AI are easy to scale and offer engagement over any channel. This coupled with powerful underlying Machine Learning engine and Language Model allows for more nuanced conversations than ever before. Furthermore, the easy to use UI allows users to create and curate conversations without the need of data scientists. They are also easily able to link to back end applications thus opening the door to much more complex implementations of the technology.
The rise of fully digital financial services will pave the way for the democratisation of financial advice and stimulate a generally more financially adept population. Once a service only guarded for the upper class, digital banks allow every customer regardless of circumstance to receive a continuous and indifferent level of support and advice tailored to them specifically. By allowing people to access thorough financial advice and planning from the comfort of their own homes, the industry can open up its services to more people than ever before.
Banks and financial institutions that get the implementation of AI technologies correct are set to dominate the industry in the years to come. The industry is moving towards complete digitisation, for the bank of the future, Conversational AI is the customer face that can meet customers’ demands.
