Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) has developed an important and distinguished role within modern banking. From task automation to chatbot assistants to fraud detection, AI is delivering high value across the customer experience journey. Not surprisingly, as the benefits of AI continue to flourish (e.g., better customer support with 24/7 access to financial accounts, streamlined manual processes…etc…), financial institutions will be more empowered than ever to elevate customer engagement. In this blog, let’s explore the power of Conversational AI in digital banking in more detail. 

What is conversational AI?

According to IBM, conversational AI refers to “technologies, like chatbots or virtual agents, which users can talk to. They use large volumes of data, machine learning, and natural language processing to help imitate human interactions, recognize speech and text inputs, and translate their meanings across various languages.” 

The power of conversational AI is that it can communicate like a human. It can recognize speech and text, understand intent, translate languages, and respond in a way that is human-like.

Conversational AI solutions can be offered via text and voice and across various channels and devices – from SMS and web chat for text mode to phone call and smart speakers for voice mode. 

The underpinnings of conversational AI includes technologies such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) to understand, react and learn from every interaction. 

What is conversational AI’s  superpower?

A powerful conversational AI experience is when it is indistinguishable from a human. Think about the last time that you communicated with a business online and received the answer to your question within seconds – all with little effort? This is conversational AI doing powerful work – seamlessly and efficiently. The bonus? A virtual assistant that knows when to notify and transfer the customer to a live agent – all within the same conversation stream – when the situation warrants it. 

What are the most common use cases for conversational AI in digital banking?

While conversational AI services offer a specific focus, it does provide lucrative business benefits, a few common use cases include:

• Addressing frequently asked questions (FAQs). Virtual personal assistants (a.k.a, conversational AI chatbots) can answer FAQs such as account balances and personal information changes. 

• Identifying up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Based on your customer’s specific needs, the virtual assistant can suggest up-sell and cross-sell products/services that not only support the financial health of the customer, but also uncover new revenue streams for the financial firm. 

• Managing payments. More often than not, customers have to clear bills, pay businesses, shop online, or perform some kind of online transaction. A virtual personal assistant can help the user make and manage these payments. This is particularly helpful when a payment must be made immediately and the virtual assistant can help facilitate payment quickly without your customer having to switch between platforms. 

• Performing critical, but not complicated tasks. At times, a customer may need to cancel their card, order a new one, check their balance or reset a password at a moment’s notice. A virtual assistant can automate these tasks once credential verification has been established – offering fast and accurate resolution when your customer needs it most. 

Plus, 

• Identifying fraudulent activity. Quickly identify suspicious activity before it’s too late.

• Managing documents. Help with form filling, document collection and verification.

• Sending reminders and notifications. Reminders for when a payment is due. 

The acceleration of AI adoption, globally. 

Today, global spend on AI is forecast to double – “growing more than $110 billion in 2024, with banking and retail predicted to spend the most.”  With cost pressure in financial institutions increasing, conversational AI might just be what relieves banks of budget struggles. 

“…increased automation, reduced wait times, personalization, consistency and more successful service outcomes can all drive significant efficiencies and revenue gains. Expect simple automation to deliver around a 30% reduction in customer service queries and up to 80% for more complex and sophisticated experiences that integrate with your back-end systems.” 

And, did you know…?

• Businesses and customers will save 5 billion hours on interactions because of virtual personal assistants in 2022 (Juniper Research) 

• The global conversational AI market, including chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22% during 2020–25, reaching almost US$14 billion by 2025.

• Chatbots currently represent the top use of AI in enterprises, and their adoption rates are expected to almost double over the next two to five years.

How is Cyberbank Konecta, the Technisys conversational AI solution, redefining customer engagement for financial institutions?

Cyberbank Konecta is Technisys’s next-gen conversational AI engine that empowers firms, like yours, to engage customers with a personalized experience at every touchpoint, across any digital channel.

Our virtual personal assistant understands customer sentiment, responds like a human, and reflects your brand persona.

Cyberbank Konecta tracks human behavior to collect vital information for future customer support analytics. Since the solution is client-first, it is always learning to enable financial institutions to design, train and deploy – efficiently and effectively. Using deep learning models, the “empathy engine” learns from online customer interactions in real time to support empathic experiences. Using the power of both sentiment analysis and emotion detection, valuable insights are extracted seamlessly in real time. Enabling you to get control over your data and customer journey. 

We think memorable experiences happen when customers are free to speak naturally. When your digital banking customers are not only heard, but also understood.

That is why our custom-made AI engine recognizes voice and text, understands intent, deciphers different languages and knows when to provide AI or human-based support for every customer engagement.

With Cyberbank Konecta, you gain:

•  Higher customer engagement 

•  Reduced call center overload 

•  Reliable customer support, 24/7

•  Informed decision-making in real time

•  Expanded reach via integrated ecosystems

• More ways to build long-term brand loyalty

The future of digital banking, now. 

What does the future look like for banking? According to a recent study by Salesforce, about 52% of customers expect a personalized journey – for instance, remembering names, customer preferences and important dates. With highly intelligent virtual assistants, financial institutions can achieve a differentiated experience with meaningful recommendations that are tailor-made to each and every customer. Ultimately making financial institutions an integral part of the customer journey.

Want to learn more about how conversational AI technology is elevating the digital banking experience? Check out our eBook: AI-powered Conversational Banking.