AI will help customer owned banks provide better service, according to industry leaders
A survey of Australian C-suite executives and finance leaders, conducted by Amelia, the Enterprise leader in Conversational AI, at last month’s annual Customer Owned Banking Association conference on the Gold Coast, has revealed great optimism around AI’s potential to improve responsiveness and customer service.
‘Enhancing customer experiences’ was the chief focus of their investment in technology, for 81 per cent of the survey’s respondents.
‘Decreasing the contact centre abandonment rate’ was a goal for 64 per cent, while 33 per cent were seeking to improve process automation across their operations.
A third of respondents said the support of overall sustainability goals was a focus.
Concentrating on outcomes
Deriving genuine commercial value from technology investments is an imperative for organisations in the highly competitive financial services space: 50 per cent of respondents stated that being able to ‘think in terms of outcomes and not use cases’ was the most critical factor in delivering on their AI ambitions.
Adopting a dual AI strategy and building the right data platform architecture were cited as critical factors by 22 per cent and 17 per cent of respondents respectively.
Just 17 per cent said improving fraud detection capabilities was their chief focus.
Adding virtual assistants to the team
Chatbots and virtual assistants have long been a feature of the financial services landscape but those powered by Conversational AI can deliver more responsive and personalised customer service than their more rudimentary predecessors. Almost 95 per cent of respondents identified virtual assistants as the Conversational AI capability most applicable to their business.
Knowledge management and automated customer lifecycle management were also seen as highly applicable, by 50 per cent and 28 per cent of respondents respectively.
Banking leaders are looking to a future in which Conversational AI will be used to deliver personalised proposals to customers. Almost 70 per cent of respondents hoped to use AI to provide investment options tailored to individual customer needs, and generate information which those customers can use to help them make informed decisions.
Meanwhile, 47 per cent of respondents said AI technology should also benefit employees, by providing them with improved access to research and data.
Capitalising on the benefits of AI to deliver value to customers
Amelia Vice President and General Manager ANZ, Andrew Winlaw (pictured), said it was clear the customer owned banking sector already understood the true value of AI: its ability to enhance problem solving skills and help others.
“Technologies like Conversational AI and generative AI can create intelligent virtual assistants that drive cost savings and, more importantly, increased customer and employee satisfaction,” Winlaw said.
“Local financial institutions that look for constructive ways to harness the transformative power of this technology have the opportunity to reimagine their customer experience and drive meaningful business value through increased operational efficiency.
“We’re living in an era of unprecedented innovation and there are endless possibilities for this industry to explore and experiment.”
