How Is Banking Sector Embracing Conversational AI

Banking sector needs to have trustful conversations between the employees and the customers. It is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the industry that is embracing technological advances to serve seamless customer experience.

According to a study, 90% of the banking sector’s interactions will be automatic by 2022. To remain in the race, the financial sector industries must rethink their customer service strategies and ways to interact with the customers.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector is bringing an increase in operational efficiency and also a transformation in the manner by which core financial processes are carried out. Some of the bots that are used by banking organizations are Erica by Bank Of America, EVA by HDFC Bank, Amex By American Express.

With the massive rise of chatbots, businesses are making use of conversational AI to offer instant replies to customer queries. The banking sector is also introducing chatbot technology to ease the payment process for the customers.

1) Increase Leads

The bots that are designed for lead generation as well can be embedded in the bank’s website or mobile apps to begin interactions with the customers. These bots can then check if the customers want to proceed with the purchase or analyze if they are interested in the product. The information of these leads that are generated by bots can then be sent to the sales team for further follow-ups.

2) Customer Engagement

The underlying capabilities of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and AI offer new ways to engage customers. Customers can interact with different banking processes via chat to report any potential fraud on their banking cards, apply for an increase in credit card limit, or get a breakdown of recent transactions. In this way, chatbots can automate human tasks and accomplish tasks with lesser friction, thereby increasing customer engagement.

3) Instant Responses

Customers don’t like being put on hold. If customers have to go through a long wait time, they are unlikely to continue their conversation with the bank. Conversational AI, in such cases, serves the customers efficiently by delivering instant responses to the customer queries. The AI-powered chatbots are available 24*7 for the customers.

4) Customer Support

The AI chatbots built with NLP capabilities have the ability to execute smart conversations using a wide range of customer support queries coming from different users. For better customer support, the bots can be integrated with different human touchpoints like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels that handle customer issues. These AI-powered bots can handle the routine bank queries and FAQ’s that arise.

5) Gather Feedback

Banking firms can improve their business goals by getting continuous feedback and implementing it in the best way. The bots that work on the conversational survey format of feedback can be very engaging as compared to the long feedback forms used earlier.

Engaging Chatbot Examples of Embracing Conversational AI in Banking

The conversational AI has evolved from the basic question-answer type of interactions to handing real-time customer queries. Now banks are going for automated end to end workflows with minimum human intervention possible.

Let’s take a look at some customer-centric use cases of how banks are using conversational AI-

FAQ Bot

The FAQ bot is a common use case of chatbots in banking in their early stages of implementation. It allows smooth interaction between the customers and the banks, offering them easy access to frequently asked questions.

• Accessible 24*7
• Eliminates wait time for the customers
• Makes public information available across multiple channels

Account Bot

The Account Bot makes it convenient for the customers to manage the details of their accounts. The customers can make account-related requests in a frictionless manner.

• The Account Bot
• Receives account information like payment dates, account balance, recent transactions
• Handles user authentication
• Automates the necessary bank tasks

Payment Bot

Processing payments is a timely manner promotes better cash flow management. It can inform customers about any amount that is due. The payment bot

• Confirms payment receipt and offer other information
• Helps customers to make fast payments
• Verifies transactions and processes the payment process.

Onboarding Bot

Onboarding is an essential aspect of the customer journey as well as for the banks. It is a new opportunity for banks to enroll new customers and generate sales. The onboarding bot-

• Prompts customers to upload their proof documents and other information.
• Handles customer queries related to their application and updates them proactively on the status of their approval
• Allows customers to onboard according to their preferred time and channel.

How Can Banks Add More Value with Tech Advances in the World of AI?

Banks across the world are increasingly using advanced AI-powered bot solutions to meet their customer’s expectations. Banks are continuously putting efforts to retain and grow their customer base, upsell, and cross-sell their different services.

According to a study by Juniper Research, for every query handled by a chatbot, banks can save not just 4 minutes of individual staff’s time, but also leads to $0.70 average cost savings per chatbot interaction by 2022.

By adopting AI solutions like the conversational AI and the chatbots, banks now have chances to innovate customer service and increase brand loyalty.

An example of Implemented AI In the Banking sector

KASISTO

Industry: Conversational AI

Location: NYC

How Is It using AI?:

Kasisto enables the companies to engage and transact with their customers through intelligent conversations powered by conversational AI and virtual assistants.

Kasisto’s major contribution is it’s conversational AI platform, KAI. Banks can use this “KAI Platform” to build their own chatbots and virtual assistants.

Kasisto has so far backboned AI assistants for several prominent banking institutions like the DBS Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and TD. The bank’s KAI powered bots walk the customers through different processes like making international transfers and block credit card charges.

Image Credit: Google

Thus, providing exceptional customer service is the only factor that can keep a banking organization stands out from its competitors. Banks must focus on their Chatbot experience and integrate a reliable payment system on the backend. Conversational AI can significantly improve customer experience in the financial services industry and enhance the quality of the customer’s journey.