What Happened
Bank of America is reportedly working on a Siri-like digital financial adviser named Erica for its mobile apps that will help customers better manage their personal finances. With this AI-powered service, people will be able to communicate with Erica via text or voice 24/7 to get assistance with processing transactions. Erica will also monitor spending patterns and alert customers when they are about to go into overdraft, as well as offer advice on how to improve their credit score and budgeting. Bank of America is aiming to release Erica by the end of 2017.
What Brands Should Do
This is the latest example of how conversation-based assistant services may transform customer experiences in banking. In August, Singaporean bank DBS launched a chatbot to let customers handle basic banking tasks via text. What sets Erica apart from DBS Bank’s chatbot, however, is that the former appears to be more powerful in its capabilities, as it will be able to monitor banking and spending activities and use machine learning to offer timely, personalized financial advice.
As more brands embrace digital assistants and chatbots in order to better serve their customers, brands that wish to stay ahead of the curve should start working with developers to figure out how conversational interfaces may improve the customer experience. For additional information on how brands can effectively reach consumers on conversational interfaces, please check out the first section of our Outlook 2016.
Source: Engadget