This focus is already heating up the development landscape as chatbot technology advances at a rapid clip.
Google and Microsoft already offer digital assistants on smartphones, called Google Now and Cortana, respectively, which gain increasingly deep knowledge of their users’ habits and schedules. Amazon sells a stand-alone device called Echo that features Alexa, who can, among other things, play music, read books aloud and help buy items through Amazon. And Siri of course reigns over the Apple universe.
According to Gartner, about 38% of American consumers have used virtual-assistant services on their smartphones recently; by the end of 2016 an estimated two-thirds of consumers in developed markets will use them daily.
So, all signs point toward an AI-induced change in the way we interact with... well, probably everything.
BOTS FOR BANKS: AI AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
Let’s take a step back and look at artificial intelligence from a financial services perspective.
But here are a few promising examples:
Santander UK recently added the ability for some account holders to ask questions directly to their bank accounts, using the Santander SmartBank App. The voice assistant service can pull transactions and process user requests to find details on a particular charge. Future versions promise to include voice-enabled payments, account alerts, stolen and lost card reporting and deeper insights into users’ spending.
1)➡️Atom Bank, the UK-based mobile-only bank, announced that it is incorporating WDS Virtual Agent software from Xeros into its mobile app. The machine learning software will give customers an agent-like option for assisted self-service on the app.
2)➡️Caixabank has implanted IBM Watson to help their business customers in the area of international commerce and expansion.
3)➡️RBS has launched Luvo, to support staff to help them answer business customer queries more quickly and easily.
Swedbank Group, present in Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, is using Nina, an intelligent virtual assistant that delivers a human-like, conversational customer service experience to enable self-service capabilities and quick and easy access to information for Swedbank customers and service agents alike.
4)➡️Digibank by DBS probably offers the most exciting example. Their mobile app is powered by Kasisto's AI platform, KAI, which is unique in its ability to entertain multiple channels of conversation simultaneously.
bot also amplifies the security problem. It identify and verify the user before providing information or allowing for more complex actions such as money transfers.