AI is reinventing the financial services industry. At this year’s Digital Workforce Summit in NYC, attendees will hear directly from global executives who have used AI to transform their organizations.
The financial sector is competitive, dynamic and constantly evolving. In order to thrive, banks must think innovatively and act deliberately — particularly when it comes to implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their operations.
AI systems automate transactions and user engagements at scale, and bring efficiencies throughout a financial value chain, including mitigating risk and maintaining compliance and improving customer-facing services. In this post, we delve into some ways AI can grow a bank’s business by making banking services more intuitive and personalized, and by providing more services than what’s currently available.
Give the Young People What They Want
AI-fueled virtual agents (VAs) like Amelia provide banking customers with enhanced services via 24/7, queue-free and multi-channel access to personalized information. While banking customers have long had the ability to manage finances virtually through their PC, this functionality has taken on more importance among the ascendant generation of digital natives.
According to a survey from Accenture, 71% of users would use entirely computer-generated support for banking services if they could. The same survey found that 40% of millennials would consider banking with one of the large tech brands whose business isn’t centered on finance (that number jumps to more than 50% when considering US respondents only). These sort of data points are music to the ears of executives behind a new breed of branch-less digital-only financial institutions that may be a small part of the market at present, but whose influence is growing.
One UK study found that 9% of British citizens had an account with a digital-only bank. That may not sound like much of a threat to the financial status quo, however — as you might expect — the highest adoption rates are among the youngest adults in “Generation Z” where 15% of users had a digital-only bank account, compared to just 6% of baby boomers. The survey also says that an additional 7% of respondents plan on opening one of these accounts in the next 12 months, and 9% in the next five years. The number one reason for seeking out a digital-only bank: “Doing all my banking online is more convenient.”
In order to attract the next generation of customers, traditional banks will have to compete with digital-only entities to provide convenient functionality. Virtual agents with conversational AI capabilities will be an inherent part of the mix.
Build New Business Through Data
Not only do automated user engagements provide customers with faster resolutions, but the data generated from these engagements can allow for hyper-targeted marketing to help banks message relevant services to specific customer types.
By automatically segmenting customers, banks can efficiently target users for automated up- and cross-sells. For example, a 59-year-old senior business executive with two adult children who pulls in $300,000 in annual income would be targeted for different services, such as wealth management and retirement planning, compared to an unmarried 26-year old who earns $40,000 a year and is still paying off student loans.
These targeted upselling opportunities could take place directly when a customer reaches out to the virtual agent, who could say, “Thank you for your business. By the way, we offer complimentary retirement planning consultations for all customers, would you be interested in scheduling a meeting with one of our advisors?” Customer segmentation also could be used to target messaging campaigns through other channels (emails, direct mail marketing and social promotion). For example, one major telco used AI to automatically analyze customer chat logs and increased the cost-efficiency of their automated social ad campaigns by a factor of 80.
Turn Ideas Into Action
At this year’s Digital Workforce Summit (DWS) on May 8th in New York City, attendees will have the opportunity to hear directly from enterprise leaders from across different industries on how they have transformed their organizations using AI, including executives from Bank of America and BNP Paribas. Attendees can also see live demonstrations of next-generation conversational AI and autonomic solutions. Attendance is free, but all guests are strongly encouraged to reserve their spot by clicking the link below.