A Changing Landscape
Digital banking is no longer a far-fetched, implausible concept; it’s the industry standard. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2021 Digital Banking Consumer Survey, 61% of consumers surveyed now report they interact weekly on digital channels. This uptick in digital interaction shows the growing desire customers have to engage with their bank on a virtual level.
Customers expect financial institutions to provide them with the right digital services and tools that support their banking and financial needs, and this begins with superior troubleshooting and account-servicing experience. You need to have an effective digital solution in place to respond to customers’ most immediate service requests, while also being prepared to usher them into deeper, more engaging conversations with your financial institution.
What’s on the Horizon?
In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Google Cloud Chief Executive, Thomas Kurian, had this to say about the continuing shift to digital media as a standard business practice:
“With cloud computing, every company is becoming a technology company. Automotive companies are increasingly computerized. Banks, insurance companies, and everyone is doing what retailers did 15 years ago, opening up their front doors to a digital medium. Data is becoming a very important asset. Once you make the adoption of technology materially more convenient, you see a rapid pickup in the adoption of that technology.”
The financial services industry has experienced this rapid digital adoption over the past several years, and in the wake of the pandemic, it will only increase as customers demand streamlined, accessible service. Here are three disruptive and industry-defining trends that will continue to change the way financial institutions do business.
Conversational Artificial Intelligence
As artificial intelligence evolves, banks need to utilize conversational AI technologies to create frictionless, 24/7 customer service. Not only can conversational AI resolve front-end customer issues, enabling your employees to focus on the highest-value customer care, but it also provides high-level suggestions to consumers based on deep financial knowledge and millions of relevant historical interactions.
Intelligent digital assistants, or IDAs, are a highly elevated form of conversational AI that use natural language understanding (NLU) to fully address customer needs, as well as offer insights to guide them along their financial journey. As digital banking expands, financial institutions of all sizes will need to prioritize implementing this approach to customer engagement, though up to this point, this has been easier for larger banks.
A UBS Evidence Lab report seen by Insider Intelligence found that 75% of respondents at banks with over $100 billion in assets say they’re currently implementing AI strategies, compared with 46% at banks with less than $100 billion in assets. Community banks and credit unions now must determine how to marry the personal customer service they deliver with the robust capabilities of conversational AI.
A “Phygital” Approach
By blending both physical and digital customer engagement methods via the increasingly common “phygital” approach, financial institutions capture both audiences: those who prefer the convenience of an online platform and those who favor coming into a brick-and-mortar location.
According to the PwC 2021 Digital Banking Consumer Survey, a quarter of respondents identified as phygital banking customers, up from 17% just a year ago. Digital-only banks, or “neobanks,” only account for a tiny fraction of customers, so there is a clear need to combine online and physical banking experiences to develop strong customer relationships.
Intelligent digital assistants support a “phygital” approach by allowing your human employees to spend their valuable time serving customers in branches and handling only complex service requests.
They significantly reduce the burden on your contact center by managing virtually all of your customers’ initial issues and questions and will elevate only the most prominent, urgent problems to live agents.
Omni-channel Customer Engagement Platforms
Banking customers now expect their financial institution to personally engage with them across multiple platforms and channels – whether it’s their first touchpoint with the financial institution or the hundredth time they’ve returned.
And, consumers now have more choices than ever to engage in banking – through mobile apps, browsers, phone calls, and more; your customers need a uniform voice that speaks to them across all platforms.
Intelligent digital assistants deliver one of the most holistic approaches to omni-channel customer interactions. IDAs might be considered a highly advanced version of a chatbot – but instead of providing simple answers to a predetermined list of frequently asked questions, they act as a financial expert, drawing upon a very deep and broad library of financial knowledge to actually engage customers with personalized suggestions and information. And, they do this across multiple systems, which enables a consistent experience tailored to the individual’s preferred channels.
Kasisto Helps You Move into the Future
The number of financial organizations competing for your customers’ attention grows by the day. And, they are doing it by providing robust digital experiences. Now, you can too.
With KAI, Kasisto’s bank-smart digital experience platform, you can deploy AI-powered digital assistants trained to emulate your best bankers and proven in some of the world’s largest institutions to expand digital channel use and increase profitability. It’s the key to delivering fast self-service but with the personal touch that your customers appreciate from your organization.
By partnering with Kasisto, you can apply relational banking in modern, virtual settings, differentiate your brand, and take back market share in an increasingly customer-centric financial environment.
Learn More about KAI
Check out how we deliver fast, effective implementation of your unique personalized digital assistant in under 30 business days. And, if you want more information on how it all works, contact our team.
