Humans and robots have been having conversations for years now in books, films, and on TV, so we’ve been fully primed for some time for fiction to become reality. Not only that, but we know now that we don’t need to be voyaging on the Starship Enterprise to be able to access it.
With the best of intentions, the road to creating brilliant conversational AI is treacherous. Even though fantasy and science fiction have long imagined this scenario, even though technology has reached astonishing levels of sophistication – and even though our homes are already littered with voice activated devices, we’re still waiting for the ultimate conversational AI to come to the table in a way that feels natural and useful.
The development of voice capable AI has traditionally been met with scepticism, especially in the business arena. But despite this and the limited intelligence of creatures like Siri and Alexa, consumers have become increasingly comfortable using their voices to interact with technology. This acceptance has acted as a honeypot to businesses, who are keen to benefit from semi or fully automating their customer care – particularly banks.
For decades we have seen the world of banking plagued by poor staff retention, burnout, and overwhelming numbers of telephone calls. As a result, they have been pushed to make their contact centre operations more effective for customers. Increasingly, and inevitably they have turned to automation. The first wave of chatbot and IVR technology had limited success, deflecting only a small percentage of calls. It regularly acted as little more than a knowledge base, accessible to customers via simple touchtone key presses or keywords. When customers found these basic systems unable to handle more complex requests, they would reach out for a human operative.
Lately however, conversational AI providers such as action.ai have turned a corner, and sophisticated commercial strength conversation AI is now in reach and available.
The future of commercial conversational AI is now
The next generation of conversational AI powered virtual assistants are finally capable of fulfilling the unmet expectations we all placed upon chatbots. With their ability to automate a large percentage of complex customer service calls at scale, they reduce the need to train new human agents and take the pressure off of existing call centre staff, reducing employee turnover and burnout.
This is the level of technology that we are personally committed to developing. We are immensely proud to be able to deliver more sophisticated, human-like automation than other AI vendors. Our decades of experience makes our conversational AI solutions unrivalled in the areas of machine learning, natural language processing, speech recognition, and speech synthesis. By working closely with a wide range of clients in financial services, we’re fortunate to be able to constantly refine our systems to ensure that our tech remains at the top of its field. Additionally, we work closely with our sales team to prioritise features that are particularly in demand.
We are proud to have been able to grow a strong core team that is busy building the next generation of conversational AI technology, but it must be emphasised that this level of expertise in a team is rare and the technology is extremely new. To build a conversational solution in-house from the ground up, requires a level of investment that many organisations are either reluctant or unable to make. That’s why businesses turn to us and the expertise we’re able to provide. We match the ambitious expectations of our clients with our unrivalled technology.
Big tech has paved the way for smaller giants
Thanks to the investment of tech giants into products like Google Dialogflow and Amazon Lex, businesses are much more likely to see the potential of conversational AI and the part it can play in future-proofing them. Ten years ago the idea of using AI to augment contact centre operations would have been unrealistic, but big tech investments have since paved the way. By popularising the use of AI technology, they have created new demands and expectations from both businesses and customers. As a result of changing attitudes, contact centre managers and operators are much more responsive to the possibilities of this kind of automation.
This has been especially true in the banking sector. In the US, over 900 bank branches are being closed every year. Simultaneously, banks have offered an expanded range of digital solutions, and 87% of American banking customers have engaged in online banking.
While the no-code and low-code solutions offered by big tech have led to the widespread adoption of conversational AI tools, the bespoke development solution offers businesses a distinct competitive advantage. Because this is relatively new territory, businesses and industries have wildly differing expectations and understanding of conversational AI. While COTS solutions restrict businesses with their one-size-fits-all solution, we work closely with our clients to build a highly customised solution that meets their exact specifications. We know our technology and our products inside out, and we know how best to support and advise our clients so they get the most out of our solutions. The highly customised approach we offer is especially important for the banking sector.
Great AI builds trust in online banking
Most adults have engaged with online banking services at some point and their experience will dictate the level of trust they have in the technology. 47% of customers don’t trust online-only banking, but the next gen conversational AI we offer has ways to win over this group:
- By allowing customers to interact with virtual assistants using their natural voice, conversational AI provides a more intuitive and comfortable interface than traditional online banking services. Voice technology is a powerful way to make online banking more accessible, particularly for those who are less tech-literate.
- 50% of customers prefer physical banking because they want to interact with real people. Chatbots have not been able to mimic this need, but Conversational AI is capable of handling the kind of complex requests that take place in conversation. Customers can phrase their questions in natural language, and conversational AI can respond in a human-like way with the correct information.
- Our Conversational AI supports multi-turn dialogue and can ‘recall’ details of previous conversations with customers, even if they happened months ago. This personal touch promises to engender greater trust in online services and is an example of how AI can provide a superior experience to a human counterpart.
- Using conversational tech to build customer profiles allows banks to inform their customers about useful services and insights that they might not have been previously aware of. Each customer effectively has their own personal banking assistant who has an instant and comprehensive understanding of their circumstances. On the other side of the coin, banks can benefit by using their AI as a sales tool for new services.
Trust is the lifeblood of the banking industry. Implemented well, conversational AI can play an integral part in winning over customers who are hesitant about online banking.
Transformation requires expertise
Driven by machine learning, the automation trend will continue to transform the ways in which customers interact with businesses. There is a ravenous appetite for customer service automation, and expectations naturally build alongside. Conversational AI solutions are no longer science fiction – they have the potential to fully revolutionise the banking contact centre.
However, to develop these new solutions you need a comprehensive understanding of machine learning, computational linguistics, speech processing, natural language processing, and speech synthesis. This is the expertise you can expect when you work with action.ai. We’re working to make this future a reality by building outstanding conversational technology and advising our clients on how to effectively implement it.
We’re fully committed to delivering on our promise of unparalleled conversational AI technology while ensuring that the ever-increasing expectations of businesses and customers are not just met, but substantially exceeded.
