In conversation with Virgin Money: "AI Robots Could Revolutionize Banking"

According to a new report from the CYBG, AI could revolutionize administrative and customer service in banking. The new report claims that the next wave of AI will have to retain that ‘human touch’ while also automating the process. 

The report spells out a few key areas where this transformation will have the most impact. For example, AI chatbots and biometrics could fundamentally alter how we interact with money. Repeatedly, studies have shown that 81 percent of consumers still like to speak to someone or visit a branch when it comes to banking; in short, human interaction remains critical for the banking experience, more so than any other industry. This is true for all age groups across the board.

The report concludes that “the emergence of biometrics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality are set to have a significant impact on banking in the future.” Those banks that are able to harness these technologies will be on the cutting edge, and be better able to meet consumer demand. However, banks also need to address fraud more closely if they wish to garner the public trust. 

Speaking to Bill Percy, the Client Experience Director at Virgin, the report concludes what many in banking have known for some time now. As he told us here at EBO.ai:

“We also found that while functionality of banking services remains the top requirement for consumers, brands are starting to take a more empathetic approach and are aiming to understand a customer’s emotional wellbeing in order to be able to deliver warmer and more human interactions – whether this is via communication with a human assistant or a chatbot.”

- Bill Percy, Client Experience Director, Virgin Money

This human touch will prove instrumental to the AI of the future. A sterile customer service experience could cause a massive fallout of individuals from the banking sector altogether, so this has become a key metric of measuring a bank’s performance.

AI needs to work with banks, not for banks

The truth is that AI is not actually a software serving offering, it is, in fact much more than that. It is a partner. We've established that the human touch will prove to be instrumental to the AI of the future, but no human touch to technological advancement is just as detrimental.

Here is a prime example of this, the video below shows frustrations that as consumers we are all aware of 1) Waiting on queues to speak with agents 2) Being on hold 3) Being transferred from agent to agent.

This approach doesn't make sense in the modern world. Humans cannot justify spending 80% of their time answering the exact same, mundane questions day in day out while leaving consumers who may have pressing matters such as fraud, identity risk on hold. The model is broken and therefore AI needs to automate the common queries that all organisations receive, while banks offer human support in the event where AI cannot understand queries or solely to answer pressing issues that require elements of emotional intelligence.

What are the next steps?

Everybody knows and understands that the landscape of the banking future will change tremendously over the next 3-5 years, but as organisations what questions do we need to ask ourselves to stay ahead of the curve and to ensure we've thought through everything? The good news is that EBO has created an 'AI Readiness Checklist'. This checklist has been designed with thought leaders and decision-makers in mind from our various consultations and reiterates the thinking process and questions global organisations as themselves.

At EBO.ai, one of the industries we are targeting as our specialty is Banking and Finance. So, if you find yourself in this industry and want to have a quick chat, please book a call today with our CEO, Dr. Gege Gatt or our Business Growth Consultant, Mimi Hammad. It’ll be a complimentary consultation on us, of course.