AI in FinTech: Customer Experience
So far in the “AI in FinTech” series, we’ve explored enhancements in fraud and risk controls that are provided millions in value, and advancements in wealth management that include faster, more extensive analysis. In both areas, artificial intelligence is working behind the scenes to be innovative. When it comes to customer experience, AI is front and center — representing the future of customer experience in financial services.
Improving Customer Support
Customer service is being influenced by chatbots throughout multiple industries, with the focus now on banking. Conversational AI companies have built platforms in which companies can programatically answer inquiries about balances, transactions, spending habits, and upcoming payments.
These firms allow a chatbot to access the users’ banking history, and using natural language processing (NLP) the bot detects the meaning of a user’s inquiry and displays a response. Erica, Bank of America’s version, is widely used by clients on a daily basis.
These AI systems can handle millions of daily inquiries (e.g Alipay processes 2M+ daily tickets), and help train new customer support associates with real-time recommendations based on past experience. For companies with outbound client support, AI has absorbed routine tasks of contacting customers and updating required profile information — in particular Royal Bank of Scotland minimized the workload of 30K service agents through artificial intelligence.
These customers facing chatbot systems include text chat and voice systems delivering human-like customer service at a low cost. Not only is there a cost savings in automating this function, but chatbots (such as Alibaba’s Ant Financial) are also showing increased customer satisfaction over human support teams. Clients no longer need to pull up statement copies to review their financial activity.
Automated virtual Assistants
These chatbots have grown towards becoming automated financial assistants and planners capable of providing advice and assisting users in making financial decisions. For investment and advisory firms, AI financial assistants can handle preliminary discussions from clients or prospective customers, or make recommendations on investment transactions based on financial goals and current holdings. Once the conversation becomes more complex, there can be a warm transfer to a licensed (human) financial advisor.
As the second wave of AI-based advising rolls out this decade, both FinTech startups and financial institutions are delivering their own version of automated assistants.
reducing customer Churn
Churn (or attrition) rate is a key indicator of growth across all industries and businesses, especially subscription-based firms — used to estimate future revenues by examining retention and at-risk clients. Acquiring new clients when a company has a high churn rate of existing customers nets low (or no) growth. Companies have made concerted efforts in the last 5 years to hire staff focused on managing this metric and increasing revenues with existing clients.
AI is capable of reviewing a list of multiple data points of churn (e.g. minimal account activity, increased support tickets, lack of response) and providing insights of customers who may cancel a contract before renewal. Customer success managers can then put together a customized game plan on saving the relationship and improving the company’s retention client-by-client.
What’s next for ai in fintech
As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in our daily lives (both at home and work), anticipate custom solutions by industry and company to become a major trend. Some of this has taken place in the insurance industry in standardizing tasks, such as selling insurance plans, receiving payment, processing a claim, and providing a response. In financial services, a user can initiate a review of their monthly bills, set dates to make payments, and connect with a specific provider about a recent charge — all through AI.
The ultimate force behind these changes is enhancing the current user experience in banking. Making it easier, faster, and engaging for an individual or business. The long-term goal is applying artificial intelligence in FinTech to improve lives financially towards better credit, savings, and overall wealth in the next decade. From websites in the 90s, to mobile apps in the 00s, now AI bots — how we interact with the world of finance continues to change rapidly across the world. //
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Here’s the first two parts of our “AI in FinTech” series: