Artificial Intelligence (AI) is permeating across every type of business, helping them act in more sophisticated, data-driven manners. In March, Adobe anticipated the number of enterprises using AI to increase from 15% to 31% in the subsequent 12 months, meaning much of this adoption has already happened.
Among the different types of businesses and organizations adopting AI, financial services is primed due to the industry’s focus on customer service, the availability of financial data and the increasing adoption of FinTech as in the form of partnerships with financial services.
Striking a Balance with Chatbots
Chatbots are able to automatically analyze text and look for keywords that point them in the right direction to solving the customer’s problem. For example, if a financial services customer is interested in opening an additional account and looking for information, certain trigger words like “account,” “additional,” “adding” and “opening” help these bots provide necessary answers, often asking a funneled series of questions in a sophisticated way.
It’s important for financial services to understand the value of these bots, and also their limits. While they can answer simple (and sometimes, complex) questions, they may require a human intervention when their capacity is reached. Additionally, having more and more staff trained to work with these types of AI tools — often moderators who can analyze conversations in real-time and understand where a bot has hit a limit — can help financial services companies utilize AI as a cost-effective solution to customer needs without sacrificing customer service.
Personalizing Recommendations with FinTech
Gathering information about customer spending and their accounts can help financial institutions utilize AI to automatically generate options related to credit cards, loans, accounts and mortgages. For example, understanding direct deposit information can give a bank a snapshot of regular income, and if the customer is looking for mortgage options, what kind of price range and loan options they may be able to afford. Similarly, understanding their spending habits, especially when looking at them by category, can give a picture of what credit options might be the best fit for them and provide them with personalized benefits.
This example extends to FinTech as well. FinTech and financial institution partnerships are becoming more and more prevalent, being mutually beneficial by providing customers with a combination of sophisticated and innovative tools along with regulatory compliance and security. Using this data together with AI creates limitless possibilities for consumers to take control of their finances and derive value from the data they can make available.
Fraud Detection
By regularly tracking and categorizing customer spending, AI has the ability to more quickly and accurately respond to fraud issues. Tracking unusual purchases based on location or type of purchase, along with automatic tools to temporary freeze purchases and automatically notify consumers of a potential fraud incident are all tools that are being increasingly utilized by financial services.
As fraud issues are dealt with, AI can also help to speed up claim resolution, leaving customers happier and feeling more secure in their future purchases by reducing the amount of time their finances are in limbo.
