Title:

Integration of Virtual Assistant/ Chatbot with Digital Banking Solution

Market: Banking/Financial
Customer: Banks, Credit unions, NBFCs
End-User: For new and existing banking customers

Introduction:
Digital and online banking has already been on the rise in recent years due to the rise of the
internet and smartphone usage, and the pandemic forced large-scale uptake. Mobile & net-
banking has become the most preferable channel of interaction for banking customers
nowadays.
This paradigm shift to the Digital channel creates demands for new solutions to improve the
overall digital customer experience and efficiency. With consumer expectations increasing, the
use of chatbots in banking is also increasing.
Banking organizations are leveraging artificial intelligence to launch chatbot solutions for
reducing costs and serving increasingly tech-savvy consumers. In many instances, chatbots are
developed to facilitate two-way communication, replacing channels such as phone, email or
text. The objective is to provide quick service and transactional support.

Objective/Benefits of Chatbots Integration in Banking:

● Сustomer support 24/7

Banking Customers want to get fast answers and real consultations, which led to long hours
waiting on the phone and nightmare shifts for operators who had to deal with too many
customers an hour. To handle this, First of all, banks had to hire too many operators and pay
more salaries. Second, they had to educate every new employee. Finally, the level of these
services was still just average.
Chatbots offer 24/7 availability without bad days and bad moods. They eliminate customer
queues and provide consistent service to every customer.

● Ease of use/Convenience
Chatbots are more intuitive and easier to use than a traditional banking app as it provides
conversational interactions. There is no download required and the experience can be
personalized over time through machine learning.

● Reduce Opex cost

Chatbots can handle simple, common and repetitive questions. It can even handle more
complex queries and provide transactional support. It saves a lot of call center/support operation
costs for banks.

● Improve Efficiency and service quality

Chatbots can crawl/run multiple automated queries to provide information to customers in
seconds which improves the response time and quality. It reduces customer waiting time and
long queues.

● Providing a personalized experience

Chatbots have access to the full information on the existing customer even before they start the
conversation process. They recognize and verify the client automatically based on the phone
number, login/password, authorization token, or other means of secure and reliable
identification. This way, It may greet a client by name, communicate in their preferred language
and suggest customized offers and promotions, Pending Payment Dues etc. It can maximize
revenue Opportunities - Upsell/cross sell through AI-led product recommendations to new and
existing customers.

Important Metrics:
Reduction in average Customer support calls/Branch visit - X% on daily basis
Reduction in average Customer Branch visit - X% on daily basis
Reduce average ticket closure time - X Minutes
Support/Call center spent reduction - X% YoY
Possible increment in new leads from chatbot channel - X% YoY
Lead Quality/Conversion of lead from chatbot channel - X% YoY

Note: Above metrics are different for different types of customers based on the market they operate and size. For
better accuracy, these metrics need to be identified based on customer segmentations/categorization.

Chatbot Solution Vendors:

There are too many start-up vendors available which provide MLP/AI and ML based chatbots.
and Most of these vendors mainly fall into any of below three categories:

1. Framework vendors:

These are technology driven platform vendors, offering capabilities such as Natural Language
Processing, Dialogue management and connectivity with external systems to build the chatbots.
They provide platform SDKs and hosting environments to build your own chatbots. Some of the
platforms provide consultancy or development services or there are community developers who
have experience in specific platforms.

Example:
● Microsoft Bot framework
● Pandorabots
● Amazon Lex
● IBM Watsom Assistant
● gupshup.io
2. Platform/Product vendors:
These are chatbot vendors who use specific platforms to develop domain specific chatbots and
focus on integrating their platform to Enterprise clients of specific domains.
Example: Some of the Financial domain focused chabots vendors:
● Finn AI
● Triniti.ai (from Active.ai)
● Kore.ai
● A.ware (from Senseforth.ai)

3. Development vendor/ System Integrators:

These are the vendors who work with large Enterprise Clients to develop custom bots as per
their requirement.
Example:
● Senseforth.ai develops custom chatbot (Eva) for HDFC Bank
● Interface.ai (Earlier Payjo) develops State Bank Intelligent Assistant (SIA) for SBI
● Bank of America develops custom chatbot (Erica) in-house

Vendor Recommendation:
As a Banking solution provider, My recommendation would be to integrate with chatbot Platform
vendors (as mentioned in vendor types) due to below reasons:
1. Time-to-market
2. Less investment
3. Pre-Trained Chatbots for banking requirement
4. Low-maintenance and development cost as updates and maintenance will be
responsibility of Platform vendors
5. Pre-existing integrations with Social media platforms like, whatsapp

We can follow below criteria for selection of specific Vendor from Finn AI, A.ware, Triniti.ai and
kore.ai.
● Area of Expertise and product performance
● Pricing model/license
● Data Privacy/Compliance and Security
● Current Customer references
● Size of the company/Sustainability

Integration with Social media channels:

1. Integration of chatbot with official website and mobile applications. For this solution type,
customers have to visit the Bank website or Mobile app to interact with chatbot.
Example: ‘’DIA’’ is HDFC Ergo Chatbot for it’s official website and Mobile App.

2. Virtual Assistant chatbots now provide connectivity with popular social media channels such as
WhatsApp, FB Messenger as most internet traffic has surged across social media.it would be
convenient for customers to interact with Banking chatbots from the platform we interact with
Humans. It also integrates with popular voice channels such as Amazon Alexa and Google
Home. For this solution type, customers can interact and access bank digital services via such
social media platforms directly.
Example: ‘’MyRA’’ is HDFC Ergo WhatsApp assistance chatbot which can be accessible from
customer’s WhatsApp and HDFC Ergo’s “DIA” is already on Alexa, Amazon’s voice platform.

MVP Requirement:
1. Integrate Finn AI Virtual Assistant chatbot on Web Application (client web portal) and
mobile/ tablet application
2. Platform: Client Web Portal and Mobile applications (iOS & Android) (we can extend the
presence in relevant social media messaging platforms like Whatsapp and FB
messangers in coming releases)
3. It should take chat/text conversation with Customers. (Voice conversation will be added
in future release)
4. There should be configuration for customers to define bot name, icon, communication
flows and flexibility to configure chatbot as no-code customisations.
5. It should support the English Language (Will add other languages in the upcoming
release)
6. 2-Factor Customer Authentication for existing customer: OTP-based verification, Debit-
card pin verification
7. MVP Use-cases for existing customer:
● Check account balance
● Check loan eligibility
● Update residential address
● Generate Financial statement
● Request for new cheque book
● Request for new credit card
● Request for call back from customer service (in case of specific requirement)
● Request to block debit card/credit card (SOS Service)
● Request to cancel last/recent unauthorised transaction (SOS Service)
8. MVP Use-cases for New Customer:
● Request for account Opening by submitting KYC
● Check loan eligibility
● Check nearby branch locations
● Request call back from customer service
References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2021/03/15/every-bank-needs-a-chatbot-or-two-for-its-
digital-transformation/?sh=844b65e275d7
https://www.pwc.in/consulting/financial-services/fintech/fintech-insights/chatbot-the-intelligent-
banking-assistant.html
https://www.wipro.com/blogs/aravind-ajad-yarra/chatbots--understanding-the-vendor-landscape/
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/chatbots-will-appeal-to-modern-workers
https://www.yodlee.com/fintech/chatbots-in-banking
https://theconversation.com/banking-with-a-chatbot-a-battle-between-convenience-and-security-
81328