From chatbots and robotic process automation to digital banking platforms, technology in the banking sector is evolving at a rapid pace. In this quickly shifting landscape, banks of all sizes need to reassess their digital strategies to ensure that they’re getting the most out of technology.
Banking technology is evolving, and so are the expectations of banking customers. New generations of consumers increasingly expect to be able to access an instant, on-demand service whenever they need it. Meeting this ever-present demand is hard and can be labour-intensive, placing a large burden on contact centre staff. In fact, labour expenses represent up to 95% of contact centre costs.
In this context, it is no wonder that many banks are investing in automation to meet these rising customer expectations. Numerous banks are utilising AI technology to reduce costs, boost staff well-being, and save time for their customers. For the vast majority of such banks, meeting new customer expectations and improving CX is a key drive behind their automation plans: 94% of banking and insurance firms “say that improving the customer experience is the key objective behind launching new AI-enabled initiatives”.
Conversational AI is a key tool in this process. With the ability to resolve complex customer service requests at scale, conversational AI has the potential to cut contact centre costs by an estimated $80 billion in 2026. The virtual assistants powered by this technology are already beginning to transform the banking industry, and this blog post explains why conversational tech is not a trend that your bank can afford to ignore.
What is Conversational AI?
Conversational AI is an umbrella term used to describe the technology that underpins the next generation of virtual assistants. New advances in machine learning, automatic speech recognition, and natural language processing allow conversational AI services to parse natural speech, draw out meaning, and respond appropriately and quickly. In short, these digital assistants function as a digital workforce that can engage in natural, fluid, and free-flowing conversations.
You may have heard of chatbots, a previous iteration of conversational AI tech that became popular in the early 2010s. These services were often rules-based and followed a rigid dialogue tree. While they were effective at dealing with basic requests, they struggled and quickly fell apart when faced with more complex customer interactions. The world still uses these systems.
In contrast, thanks to the mentioned technology advances, conversational AI-driven virtual assistants have a far greater ability to recognise and respond to natural language, and can respond with accurate, human-like responses. Conversational AI services have traditionally been made available over instant messaging and live-chat channels. But with more recent advances in speech recognition, the ability to automate voice calls has become the new frontier of conversational AI tech.
Three key benefits of conversational AI
1. Unified customer experience
When implemented well, a virtual assistant can become a central portal through which customers can interact with all of the services offered by your bank. Too often when a customer calls a helpline they get passed around between departments several times before their query is resolved. Often the customer is forced to navigate through a time-consuming and complex IVR menu before they can even speak with a live agent. And if they’re calling with more than one request, this can mean multiple transfers, with each one requiring them to wait on hold. This risks frustration spiralling, and frustrated customers add extra pressure onto already overstretched contact centre staff.
Conversational AI seeks to make this experience a thing of the past. With expanded capabilities, today’s virtual agents can resolve the vast majority of customer service requests on the first call. Customers simply need to dial in once, and they can immediately start chatting with an expert digital agent that is ready to meet their needs. And if the customer does require human support, the service is capable of conversationally triaging the customer’s request to ensure that they are correctly transferred to the right department.
2. Accommodate changing demand
In the customer service industry, there is a pervasive myth that younger generations of consumers are avoiding the telephone in favour of instant messaging and live-chat services. However, preliminary data is beginning to challenge this myth. 69% of consumers of all ages prefer the telephone as a customer service channel, and 42% of gen z say they’ve called customer service more frequently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In short, high volumes of phone calls are set to continue. And this is likely to spike further during times of disruption and crisis. Rather than trying to deflect customer service calls into an FAQ knowledge base or live chat, banks need to meet their customers where they are and improve their voice automation and self-service offerings.
Conversational AI offers banks a solution to these problems. With the ability to automate thousands of calls simultaneously, virtual agents can be scaled to meet fluctuating demand. In times of disruption, this can provide your contact centre staff with vital breathing room.
3. Improved staff wellbeing
Periods of disruption, such as the pandemic, can take a toll on contact centre employees. 52% of staff said their workload dramatically increased as a result of COVID-19, and 88% said their responsibilities had expanded. By reducing the number of repetitive calls faced by call centre workers every day, conversational AI services can reduce workloads and help employee well-being recover.
When they need to spend less time on routine and mundane tasks, staff can spend more time on the higher value and more specialist customer interactions at which they excel. This has a twofold effect: staff morale improves and customers receive a better, more focused service as a result. Banks benefit too as lower call volumes translate into cost savings.
The future of banking
In the financial industry, exceptional CX is quickly becoming a key differentiating factor between banks. With the ability to resolve customer service requests 24/7, virtual agents are emerging as a key tool that can help banks of all sizes stay competitive, especially against new fintechs and challenger banks. To recap, conversational AI has multiple key benefits for the banking industry:
- Customers benefit from instant and unified customer service;
- Contact centre staff benefit from reduced workloads;
- Banks benefit from reduced contact centre costs and higher customer satisfaction.
At action.ai we’re committed to delivering a future where conversational AI-powered assistants are at the forefront of banking. Our uniquely experienced team draws on the latest insights in machine learning to build virtual assistants that are enterprise ready.
Our conversational AI service is equipped with deep domain-specific banking knowledge and is capable of holding natural back-and-forth conversations with customers. And with the ability to recognise hesitations and interruptions, your customers will be understood however they choose to express themselves.
All of this works to create a service that is intuitive, engaging, and ready to meet the growing expectations of modern banking customers.
