Blog

Artificial Intelligence Innovations

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By Jason O’Brien

2 minutes

Robot revolution concerns aside, AI will likely pull together multiple technologies and improve the member experience.

Sponsored by SWBC   

Artificial intelligence is slowly becoming the norm for financial services and insurance firms. The term makes some folks shake in their boots as they feel we’ll have an apocalyptic situation on our hands where robots take over the world. Such Steven Hawking-esque doomsday predictions are unlikely. AI’s place in the financial services world is to pull together multiple technologies to analyze data, foresee solutions and make decisions.

Innovators leading the pack will utilize AI to improve member experience and streamline processes. What does this look like? AI will soon be deployed by financial institutions to analyze transaction data and better understand an account holder’s spending routine. AI can then provide alerts on spending, offer suggestions on how to save more, and provide account holders with personal finance tips.

Robo-advisors in the wealth management sector are beginning to surface as well. The bots analyze a person’s portfolio, risk tolerance and previous actions taken on their accounts to help guide planning and growth. Firms are looking to AI to help offer a more tailored experience for their members.

Early adopters in the financial services sector are applying chat bots with natural language processing to quickly connect customers with answers to questions. If an NLP bot is unable to properly answer a member’s questions, the question is escalated to a real-life service rep to assist. In some instances, AI can even follow along and “observe” how the human solves the customer inquiry so it can learn and better serve the next individual.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the use and potential of AI found that reviewing transactions for compliance was a likely use case for financial services firms. Report results show 16 percent of top financial services firms surveyed said they are either in the process of widespread adoption or have completed the adoption process of AI. Another 57 percent of respondents said their firms have not implemented the technology, but have researched and completed one or more proof-of-concept tests.

Integrating AI technology will help financial services firms identify account holder patterns and have the potential to move institutions from a reactive to proactive member model. It will be interesting to see how the industry evolves and adapts to this next revolution of technology to meet member expectations and improve member experience.

Jason O’Brien is SVP/payments for CUES Supplier member SWBC, San Antonio, Texas.

Check out the company’s latest ebook, Meeting Consumer Self-Serve Payment Demand, to learn valuable and timely information on current trends in the payment industry, tips on how to meet regulator and compliance demands, and specific steps your credit union can take to engage with your digital users.

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