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The pandemic has expedited digital transformation across industries – is an understatement. Legacy businesses are struggling to unlock value in a world that they barely recognize. Luckily for the financial services sector, it did embrace digital transformation faster than other sectors. With today’s technology, there is always that catching up, no matter how agile you are. Conversational AI, automation, predictive analytics, and other adjacent technologies are here to stay. They can help the financial services sector become more forward-thinking and customer-centric. So, embracing these technologies is no longer nice-to-have but crucial to delivering value in a post-COVID world. Digital-first customers exposed to advanced technologies expect their banks to deliver seamless customer experiences like Apple’s and Amazon’s of the world.
Looking from a financial service provider’s vantage point, they did face significant challenges when the pandemic struck, and economies went into lockdown overnight. The biggest impact was in their day-to-day operations and delivery of customer service. The lockdown forced employees to work from home, and contingency plans suddenly became front-and-center priorities. As if that was not enough, the WFH model met with the double whammy of agents inundated by harried customer calls. It became the norm rather than an exception. That is when forward-thinking financial service players banked on Artificial Intelligence and automation to get things going.
We are now on the cusp of a global economic recovery. The post-COVID era is knocking on our door. But let us be clear about one thing – there is no going back to the pre-COVID era, and things will never be the same again. Let us see how conversational AI and automation can help financial service providers in the post-COVID age.
First things first, the WFH model (continuing in the foreseeable future) and extended lockdowns have made financial players more vulnerable to new online security threats. That has, in turn, tightened government regulations. From a security and compliance point of view, conversational AI can help them cope in this new environment. Voice authentication, remote monitoring, compliance supervision, fraud detection, and security were indeed put to the test and delivered sterling results, thanks to the power of AI and intelligent automation.
When it comes to customer service, AI and automation are the bedrock of today’s contact centers (where the rubber meets the road). Based on a customer’s past interaction, conversational AI does a better job of understanding customers, their real intent, and anticipating their needs. By detecting customer intent, sentiment, and emotions in real-time with conversational AI, the financial services industry contact centers can handle all the customer calls the right way. Conversational AI can also scale rapidly, and thus the platform that does a fine job of supporting 500 agents will do just fine supporting 5,000 agents. This way, more agents can provide more predictable and personalized customer service, paving the way for stronger long-term customer relationships in the financial services industry.
Get in touch with Uniphore to learn how you can benefit from Conversational AI now!