In October, Bank of America (BAC) – Get a free report announced that its virtual financial assistant, Erica, has had one billion interactions with its clients.
The artificial intelligence (AI) technology was first launched in May 2018. The company said the assistant will help users look up past transactions, connect them to information about their credit scores and money management, access key information such as routing numbers and nearby ATMs, schedule in-person meetings and use Zelle to transfer money.
The AI was designed to learn from user behavior and adapt to the needs and patterns of the bank’s customers, says Bank of America.
“Erika’s knowledge of banking and financial services grew with each client interaction,” said Aditya Bhasin, then head of consumer technology and wealth management at Bank of America. “Over time, Erica will gain the insights to not only help pay a friend or register your transactions with a specific merchant, but also help you make better financial decisions by analyzing your habits and providing guidance.”
How Erica evolves over time
Since its launch, Erica has added new functionality, including weekly expense snapshots and proactive notifications about duplicate charges.
“Everything we do is based on what we hear from our customers: how they want to interact with us and how we can improve their financial lives,” Michelle Moore said in a press release at the time, when she was head of digital banking at Bank of America.
“Erika delivers this in many ways, from making it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for to providing new and interactive ways to do their banking using voice, text or gestures,” she continued. “Through Erica, we also deliver customized solutions at scale by providing insights, like how you can improve your credit score or create a budget.”
Now, Bank of America says, Erica will begin connecting customers to bank agents when that’s the best course of action. And these humans will have the ability to transition the customer back to AI conversations as issues are resolved.
“We realized, at some point, people say, ‘I’m done with this chat, I need to talk to a human,'” Harry Gopalakrishnan, Bank of America’s CIO for retail, preferred, small business and wealth technology, said last week. At Tearsheet’s virtual fintech conference. His remarks were reported by BankingDive.
“What if we could just present the human agent right along with the chatbot, pick up where you left the chat, then step back and let the chatbot take over again?” He continued.
Bank of America is trying to personalize the digital help
During the Corona epidemic, an increasing number of Bank of America customers began to use its digital services. The bank, in response, is looking for ways to include more personalized advice about online banking, investments, credit and retirement planning.
“This idea of proactively reaching out to you and telling you what your financial situation is, almost like an advisor in your pocket,” Gopalakrishnan said.
Bank of America says it has invested about $3 billion in new technology every year for more than a decade, including for AI.
“Our continued investment in Erica’s AI-powered capabilities allows us to quickly respond to voice chat, text or on-screen interactions from customers who need assistance with financial transactions, and proactively deliver personalized insights and advice at key moments,” Chief Technology Officer Aditya Bhasin said in a statement. to the press.
