Is your bank ready to team up with chatbots?

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1 Is your bank ready to team up with chatbots? banking

2 The new face of banking In the world of banking, a new breed of chatbots is making waves. Banking customers are today interacting more with chatbots than with bank executives or contact center agents who quickly add millions of dollars to a banks support costs. Take Capital One s Eno I, a chatbot that tracks bank balance, knows the details of customers recent transactions and even makes bill payments for them. You could ask Eno, When is my credit card payment due? using an interface similar to any popular chat application II and Eno will respond with accurate dates. You could tell Eno, Make the payment now and Eno will execute the order. Scores of chatbots from other banks are already assisting customers by answering questions about where the nearest ATM is located, to providing advice on how to improve savings. Everyone s excited about chatbots Customers are excited about these chatbots. This is because they are already comfortable using technologies like Apple s Siri, Microsoft s Cortana, Amazon s Echo and Google s Assistant to complete everyday tasks. These chatbots -- powered by NLP, text recognition, machine learning, data analytics and other elements of artificial intelligence -- are accurately carrying out tasks such as re-setting Wi-Fi passwords and ordering groceries for users without human intervention. If chatbots can function in support and retail domains, they can do the same for banking. Banks are excited about chatbots too. It isn t difficult to see why. One reason is the rising cost of call center agents. Implementing chatbots is a business imperative for organizations with extensive customer service needs. Chatbots will soon deliver customer satisfaction at significantly lower cost than human customer service agents, says Gartner III. Implementing chatbots is a business imperative for organizations with extensive customer service needs. Chatbots will soon deliver customer satisfaction at significantly lower cost than human customer service agents, says Gartner III. According to a study by a global consulting firm, a typical customer support call, using an agent, costs about US$4. Chatbots can reduce this to a few cents. Many banks can save as much as US$25 million a year by shifting 5% to 20% of call volumes to chatbots. The other reason is that today s bank customers would rather talk to an unbiased and fact-driven chatbot than to an agent who has inherent biases and obvious sales goals. Without losing on the feeling of connectedness that a conversation-based engagement creates, banks can optimize costs, increase customer satisfaction and improve outcomes. Non-intrusive, conversation-based engagements can be created in practically every banking function -- from client onboarding to money movement and customer service. Overcoming the challenges But banks have a few challenges to overcome before chatbots can become a reality. First, there is limited NLP support as banking domain-specific ontology is not exhaustive. The second problem is with security. Banks cannot have an open as well as secure integration with chatbots and prompting a customer for authentication before a chatting session does not really provide a seamless user experience. Bank chatbots delivered over platforms apart from the bank s own application will require adequate security measures with end-to-end encryption. What could be the possible points of intervention to authenticate users better? Fingerprinting scans and biometrics will help create the required layer of authentication and security for in-house chat applications. I II Like WhatsApp or FB Messenger III Predicts 2017: Artificial Intelligence, Whit Andrews, et al.; November, 23,

3 Spinning the right chatbot strategy There are numerous approaches that a bank could take to its chatbots strategy (see Table1). Approaches to Chatbots: The Pros and Cons Approach Embedded into the banks mobile banking application Deliver using a third-party messenger platforms such as Deliver via virtual assistant products/devices such as Google WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Home and Amazon Alexa Microsoft Cortana or Google Assistant Pros Available to all banking customers who use the banks mobile app Best suited for push and pull interactions Customized geo-specific solution Easy to train for local nuances owning to large customer base Best suited for push and pull interactions Financial service will become a part of everyday functions, such as weather, news, music Ability to learn about customers would be high with platform providers insights Cons Chatbots are not a banks main capability -- handling multiple customer types, languages, etc., can become tricky Training chatbots based on customer interactions with one bank would be time consuming Banks will need to choose between the varying capabilities of different chat platforms Segment preferences are high, making it difficult to choose a chat platform for specific countries Voice, natural interaction and learning is fast but not very accurate as of now Security will be a major consideration Table 1 To begin with, there is the temptation to create a proprietary bank application. But there is no real reason to re-invent the wheel. The best option is to simply build the cart that sits atop the existing wheels: This means using third-party messenger platforms or using virtual assistants and devices to deliver chat functionality. Solutions on popular third-party platforms provide the best experience and acceptability of bank chatbots. When platformification of banking becomes a reality IV there will be a plethora of third-party apps which will use banks APIs to deliver financial services on these platforms. This brings us to the question of the number of platforms on which a chatbot should be built. Should a bank build a chatbot for Google Assistant, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, etc., so as not to leave out any of its customers? The answer is, Probably not. There are services like MyKai, Chatfuel, Beepbeep, Botkit and Smooch, which allow building and deploying a chatbot to multiple messenger platforms in one go. This helps maintain uniformity and context. It also makes it easy to synchronize content across platforms a fact that is especially useful when a customer uses multiple messengers. While chatbots, undoubtedly, have some way to go before we see mass adoption, there is no doubt that they will gather pace. For the immediate future, banks would do well to keep their chatbot strategy simple and invest in an AI platform that can power them in the future. IV Driven by requirements such as Payment Services Directive2 in the EU 3

4 About the authors Suvendu Chand, Practice Head for Wipro s Digital Banking and Channels business With over 15 years of diverse global experience and an expertise in digital transformation, Suvendu has led multiple large-scale digital banking consulting initiatives in North America, Europe, APAC and the Middle East. He can be reached at suvendu.chand1@wipro.com Khushboo Goenka Jain, Principal Consultant with Wipro s Digital Banking and Channels business Works primarily on conceptualizing innovative solutions. She has been with Wipro for more than 9 years and has worked on several digital banking initiatives in North America, Europe and APAC. She can be reached at khushboo.goenka@wipro.com. 4

5 Wipro Limited Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore , India Tel: +91 (80) Fax: +91 (80) wipro.com Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: , NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have a dedicated workforce of over 170,000, serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future. For more information, please write to us at info@wipro.com IND/BRD/JUN2017-MAY2018