Is the future for robots? In professional circles, the question arises every day and the yes answers are accumulating more and more decisively. However, there are sensitive areas such as healthcare or finance, where banking with an artificial intelligence (AI) solution seems strange at first. However, this has become very fashionable in developed financial markets and is already available. But how can you bank with a robot?
Robots became popular mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, as human-shaped creatures that make life easier for people. Two of these robots, R2D2 and C3PO, immediately played a role in the iconic movie Star Wars, but few people know that robot technology was still far from the level that viewers could see on the screen, so both robots were moved by people hiding inside them. Yes, R2D2 too.
Then a few decades passed, robots appeared in our lives. However, not at all in the form that we previously thought. Today, everything is «smart», including the telephone, the home, and the TV, but the real explosion will come from robots armed with artificial intelligence, the seeds of which are already present in Hungary, even in the strictly regulated financial affairs.
But first, an international outlook: how are the financial service providers of countries with developed markets doing with all this?
The best chatbots are increasingly difficult to distinguish from humans
I once had a problem with Aliexpress in China, but I was unable to make myself understood on the only customer service channel, the chat: the employee on the other side simply did not understand what my problem was, even though I described it in countless ways. In the end, I lost my patience and asked him if he was really human or a robot, to which he replied that he was human. But I couldn’t make myself understand him anymore. I finally gave up.
At the same time, robots are not exclusive to the financial sector, natural human intelligence is also very necessary. According to Revolut’s report on fraud , for example, the fintech bank operates a team of 2,500 people working 24 hours a day only in the fight against financial criminals, while also applying advanced artificial intelligence-based algorithms and cyber security measures.
Artificial intelligence-based chatbots on the World Wide Web
I was surprised to find during fundraising that there are already a lot of chatbots in operation all over the world, especially based on help in financial matters. I expected to find examples, but not so many.
This is exactly the case.
Although many banks offer financial assistants (chatbots), since according to the 2022 American study by Cornerstone Advisors, every fifth bank and credit union had a chatbot already two years ago, but of these
This has since been surpassed by the explosion of ChatGPT in 2023, which brought a revolution in the application of artificial intelligence in customer service work as well.
So today, the question for financial service providers is not whether to use a chatbot based on artificial intelligence, but only how.
Financial chatbots around the world
Financial services is one of the five industries most likely to benefit from AI-powered chatbots. The size of the chatbot market for banking, financial and insurance services is estimated to reach $7 billion by 2030.
More and more banks are using this service to solve various simpler customer problems (such as balance inquiries), but more advanced financial chatbots can even provide users with analysis and investment advice.
The most common areas of use in financial services:
- handling common questions and tasks
- financial advice, not only in investments, but also in credit and mortgage support,
- fraud prevention
- interest generation in financial services and cross-selling
- spend analysis for users
- notifications about events and money movements on the account
These robots are not only used in mobile applications or web pages, but also in social media, voice-based assistants, self-service platforms (e.g. ATMs), etc. can also be incorporated.
Here are 3 examples of artificial intelligence-based chatbots used in leading financial services.
Erica, Bank of America’s smart assistant
Erica , a financial chatbot, provides Bank of America customers with a variety of services, including transaction history reviews, balance inquiries, and spending pattern analysis.
Erica alerts you to refunds from merchants, notifies you when recurring charges occur, informs you about available rewards, helps you review your spending, can search for past transactions in your user account, or notify you of changes in your credit score.
Erica also helps with replacing lost or stolen bank cards, checking balances, and temporarily blocking or unlocking the bank card. It can also help you find account numbers and cancel pending payments.
The chatbot is currently only available in the mobile banking application. It learns together with the user and takes knowledge from conversations with other Bank of America users.
EVA from HDFC Bank
EVA (Electronic Virtual Assistance) has become India’s first artificial intelligence-based banking chatbot that can handle a wide range of functions, from account details to product information and even information about individual bank branches, significantly improving the banking user experience for HDFC Bank customers.
All you have to do is type in the desired product or service and you will receive the right answer within seconds. The chatbot can switch the chat language from English to Hindi and also supports voice search.
It immediately opens the savings account, shows the bank’s branches, debit card offers (it even accepts card applications), and helps answer questions related to these. EVA also helps with personal loans, including pre-approved loans and daily deals. Of course, the entire personal loan application process can be completed online. It also shows the various personal loan fees, prepayment fees and late interest.
EVA helps with HDFC Bank business loans in terms of interest rates, fees, necessary documents, and even starts the application process immediately.
It provides loans on the credit card, both in the form of credit within the credit limit and beyond it. It provides a summary of the existing loan and also accepts the credit card cancellation request. It also provides a wide variety of services in connection with the credit card, such as providing information and offers to the user, providing a credit card statement and also enabling the user to pay their credit card bill with the chosen payment method. The chatbot also makes sure that it never asks for a full credit card number during administration. Instead, it only requests the last four card numbers and the registered mobile phone number from the customer.
It manages fixed deposits, helps with calculations, and also provides assistance in the field of overdrafts. It does not manage home loans, instead it redirects you to a related website, but it can provide information on home loan eligibility, fees and required documents. On the other hand, you can manage the car loan online.
Eno, Capital One’s chatbot
«Eno takes care of you», reads one of the advertising slogans on the bank’s website . For example, the chatbot sends the user such a message about suspected fraud or suspicious transactions:
“Hi, I’m Eno from Capital One. Did you just try to shop at Salad Savvy with your card ending in 1234?” If the cardholder does not recognize the transaction, the chatbot provides assistance in solving the problem.
It creates virtual card numbers for online purchases, with which it is safer to pay online instead of using a physical card.
Monitors subscriptions, recurring payments, and sends information such as: “The trial period ends tomorrow. If you want to continue your subscription, you don’t have to do anything. But if you want to cancel, contact Streaming+ today!”
Eno tries to send useful information to the user when it detects free trials, recurring charges or other similar transactions. Handles fraud reports, modifies individual payment deadlines upon request, and provides assistance with transfers. It sends notifications about important bank account activities, allowing the user to take quick action.
You can send useful spending statistics and financial summaries to the user’s inbox or even to their smartwatch. It helps discover credit card options, making it easier and more efficient for the user to manage their credit card account.
In addition to online availability, it can also chat with the user via SMS.
