Today, we are excited to announce the second generation of KAI, the leading Conversational AI platform for financial institutions. KAI is widely recognized for its ability to drive business results while improving customer experiences.
The new features and enhancements in this next generation reflect our agile, customer-centric philosophy of incorporating our real-world experience working with banks to design, integrate, deploy, maintain and expand intelligent conversations.
Since KAI’s launch in 2016, it has processed tens of millions of virtual interactions across six countries, three languages and multiple channels, including mobile apps, websites and messaging platforms. DBS Bank, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, TD Bank and other leading financial institutions are using KAI to improve digital servicing, drive deeper digital engagement, and streamline customer and product acquisition.
Our improved suite of tools makes it easier for banks to quickly add new features and services, channels and markets. Since KAI is a very API-centric platform, we continuously incorporate new financial services data into our robust APIs so our customers can rapidly deploy well-branded and personalized experiences. Just like KAI, we’re always learning and these enhancements are a direct result of what it means to be proven in production, powering intelligent conversations with millions of bank customers.
Key feature improvements in this second generation of KAI include:
Self-service platform tools empower banks to manage content and AI training
KAI’s Conversation Management System (CMS) includes an enhanced content editor and workflows to easily add, edit, delete and preview conversational content across any channel. This enables banks to react quickly to changing business needs and effectively and expediently manage content approval processes that are driven by their internal business, marketing, and compliance stakeholders.
AI Training and Analysis tools allow banks, Kasisto staff, and third-party service providers to train and manage KAI’s machine learning and enable deep analysis and quick improvement cycles. New features include sophisticated filters designed for large-scale rollouts and improved productivity workflows.
Extending language coverage
KAI now supports more languages, including Cantonese and French.
Differentiated conversations easily deployed across channels with Conversational API
KAI’s unique Conversational API (CAPI) is designed to allow banks to easily build and extend their own customer experiences across their mobile apps and websites, as well as external messaging platforms and voice-enabled devices. This new version of CAPI supports a wide variety of media types and makes it easier to deploy virtual assistants and bots on any client environment.
Kasisto has also significantly enhanced its webview-based library to include conversational UI best practices, user experience enhancements, and critical security features and flows. Kasisto’s customers leverage this library as a foundation to rapidly customize KAI to reflect their bank’s brand.
Improved customer segmentation and personalization
KAI’s new segmentation feature allows business users at banks to define and target customer segments based on any combination of parameters. Now, they can define and manage segments so KAI-powered virtual assistants can be designed with unique customer experiences.
- Customers: Banks can configure KAI to utilize their traditional segments (such as Silver, Gold, Platinum) and customize KAI’s responses based on the customer’s segment. For example, a Silver customer will get a different answer to the question, “What is the minimum I need to have in my account to avoid a fee?” than a Platinum customer.
- Channels: Banks can use this feature to fine-tune KAI’s responses according to the channel. This feature ensures that a question like, “Where can I find my statements?” will be answered differently if the customer is asking on their bank’s website versus a voice-enabled device such as Amazon Alexa.
- A/B Testing: With the powerful segmentation capability, banks can define different answers to the same question and analyze which experience performs better.
Robust security and compliance at its core
As we expand our production customer base across the globe, we continue to add features to support different compliance and regulatory requirements. KAI has a continuum of enhanced algorithms and procedures to scrub Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to ensure that all data is anonymized. KAI also includes a new, long-term record retention feature that is essential for compliance with strict banking regulations.
In the words of our customers
Todd Copeland, SVP Head of Digital Channels at TD Bank, said, “We are committed to creating deep connections with our customers through intelligent, highly personalized and empowering experiences. Our collaboration with Kasisto is helping us respond to our customers’ needs and adding an important new dimension to our leading mobile app that will give customers even more access to real-time insights into their spending patterns.”
In the next few months, we’re looking forward to several of our new customers launching KAI-powered assistants to their customers and utilizing the new features we are announcing today.
Architecture matters and KAI is future-proof
In Gartner’s September 2018 report, Architecture of Conversational Platforms, they recommend that “Technology innovation leaders looking at how AI conversational platforms are evolving should: Choose a platform approach to conversational capabilities because the underlying architecture is similar for a wide variety of use cases.” Furthermore, they cite that “Customers looking at multiple use cases in the enterprise will benefit from a platform approach.” Another key recommendation is to “select only solutions or capabilities that have analytics as part of the architecture, enabling them to learn and improve their conversational implementations.” More-sophisticated platforms have the tools to turn analytics into action and help improve the system.
We believe this report underscores the importance of a conversational AI platform’s architecture and its extensibility to ensure it can evolve to meet future requirements. In addition to architecture, banks should also pay close attention to tools and analytics. Clearly, we’ve made an investment in all these key areas, and what sets us apart is the quality and sophistication of KAI’s tools and experience integrating into our customers’ systems.
Conversational AI systems are constantly learning and discovering from customers, and the pace of change is rapid. KAI is enterprise-ready and tested by the rigorous demands of financial institutions for scalable, extensible, secure and compliant solutions. And, with these new features, we’re ensuring that our customers can anticipate and meet their fast-changing market requirements.
