Self-service that delights customers: How the IBM Partner Ecosystem is harnessing generative AI assistants in the banking and financial sectors

For over two decades CMSWire, produced by Simpler Media Group, has been the world’s leading community of digital customer experience professionals. Matt Hasan, CX strategist and AI solutions developer at aiRESULTS, Inc., told CMSWire that AI enhances personalization through predictive analytics and customer journey mapping. As AI continues to evolve, the potential for automating more complex workflows grows, enabling contact centers to operate more smoothly, reduce human error, and provide faster, more consistent service. These innovations aim to not only improve operational efficiency but also give businesses a competitive edge in the race to meet evolving customer needs. Given that the majority of us have had the annoying experience of being stuck in an endless IVR loop, that’s not surprising.

However, as banks digitize more transactions and interactions, human contact between banking staff and their customers reduces. From one perspective, this means that every instance of human contact is an increasingly important opportunity for generating brand value. The future of AI CRM seems bright as more AI tools continue to be developed, such as voice recognition and augmented reality, among others.

At the same time, PEAC Portal 2.0’s user-friendly design is helping its commercial team dedicate more time to understanding partner needs, creating a more collaborative and growth-focused business environment. Hippocratic AI trained its models on evidence-based medicine and completed rigorous testing with a large group of certified nurses and doctors. The constellation architecture of the solution comprises 20 models, one of which communicates with patients while the other 19 supervise its output. To address these challenges, many retailers are turning to conversational AI and AI-based call routing. According to NVIDIA’s 2024 State of AI in Retail and CPG report, nearly 70% of retailers believe that AI has already boosted their annual revenue. While the intention behind these initiatives is to protect customer interests, the proposed actions may not have the desired effects.

On one hand, IVR systems offer the promise of 24/7 availability and the potential to quickly route customers to the appropriate service or information, reducing wait times and improving overall efficiency. On the other hand, these systems are well known and often despised for creating frustration — complex navigation menus, impersonal interactions and the feeling of being trapped in an endless loop without reaching a resolution or a human agent. EY teams worked with a major retail bank on a project where the goals included simplifying cost center operations, reducing operating costs and improving service quality. While AI can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service, it is essential to recognize the importance of collaboration between AI and human agents. By leveraging the strengths of both AI and human agents, companies can deliver optimal customer service experiences that combine the speed and accuracy of AI with the compassion and problem-solving skills of human agents. With 73% of consumers stating that customer experience is pivotal for brand loyalty, it’s evident that businesses can’t afford to be complacent.

How a company transformed employee HR experience with an AI assistant

The combination of global knowledge and localized customer service in financial services can help to… To develop and deploy effective customer service AI, businesses can fine-tune AI models and deploy RAG solutions to meet diverse and specific needs. According to McKinsey, over 80% of customer care executives are already investing in AI or planning to do so soon. Last but not least, I think it is important that your CRM and other business applications are integrated with your contact center through something like a smart computer technology integration (CTI). This can help offer quick assistance, work on real-time data, improve productivity, and more. Catering to customers born and brought up in an environment surrounded by technology, businesses should invest in the right technology for their customer support team.

Banks recognize the need to optimize and reduce the customer service cost base – while simultaneously meeting customers’ expectations for a high-quality service experience. They need to transform their customer service operations to satisfy changing future customer needs, while also reducing costs now. As AI evolves, an AI-first approach in customer service will only become more integral to the shopping experience and further cement its role in shaping the future of retail experience. By leveraging customer service analytics, businesses gain valuable insights into what their customers really want. These data-driven findings are reshaping marketing strategies to create deeper connections, converting casual browsers into loyal supporters.

Related products

He views AI as the « ultimate alchemist » that can help bring together people, technology, and processes. For « CXO AI Playbook, » Business Insider takes a look at mini case studies about AI adoption across industries, company sizes, and technology DNA. We’ve asked each of the featured companies to tell us about the problems they’re trying to solve with AI, who’s making these decisions internally, and their vision for using AI in the future.

Enlighten Autopilot, one of the products within NICE’s Enlighten AI for CX repository, enhances self-service with an AI-powered virtual assistant. Additionally, customers may have unique or complex inquiries that require human interactions and human judgment, creativity, or critical thinking skills that a chatbot may not possess. Chatbots rely on pre-programmed responses and may struggle to understand nuanced inquiries or provide customized solutions beyond their programmed capabilities. The system’s capacity to handle tasks such as application submission, approval tracking, and document generation in real-time means less time wasted and fewer obstacles for customers trying to secure financing.

In nearly every industry, AI systems can help improve service delivery and customer satisfaction. “These investments in ‘agent assist’ tools will set the foundation for increasingly robust self-service options that will follow,” said Snyder. A recent Verint report found that brands leveraging AI for self-service are up to twice as likely to improve self-service containment rates and first contact resolution rates across both digital and voice channels. Additionally, the report indicated that 76% of businesses that are not currently using AI for self-service plan to do so over the next year. AI’s ability to improve self service options, streamline operations, enhance personalization and reduce response times is transforming how businesses engage with their customers, making each interaction more efficient and effective.

To streamline online communication, the most effective method was to automate responses to frequently asked questions. The organization required a chatbot that could easily integrate with Messenger and help volunteers save time by handling repetitive queries, allowing them to focus on answering more unique or specific questions. Working capital funding provides ChatGPT fast, flexible solutions to fuel business growth, offering advantag… The core motivation behind the update to PEAC Portal 2.0 stems from a desire to increase efficiency in critical processes like credit decisions, pricing configurations, and document generation. The portal now features automatic credit scoring, reducing the need for manual data entry.

The challenge today is to keep the human element central to customer service experiences, ensuring that technology acts as an enabler of meaningful interactions rather than a barrier. The ability to provide exceptional digital service can differentiate industry leaders from their competitors. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. But facilitating that level of experience at scale is virtually impossible without the right support tools in place behind the scenes. SkiftX caught up with Jason Smith, senior executive vice president of travel and hospitality at global business services provider Teleperformance, to discuss how travel brands can use AI to empower and enhance their customer service teams.

While customers expect anytime, anywhere banking and support, financial services require a heightened level of data sensitivity. And unlike other industries that may include one-off purchases, banking is typically based on ongoing transactions and long-term customer relationships. By thoughtfully combining automation with the human touch, brands can deliver a customer service experience that combines efficiency with personalization. This balanced approach not only caters to the varied needs of customers but also cements brands as empathetic and customer-centric in a market that values both speed and connection.

The predictive tool can also help manage customer churn and identify necessary changes to the sales process. The vast amount of data generated by the CRM platform became too much for the traditional system and a new solution had to be found. This is where generative AI tools stepped in and have since changed the way CRM systems work today. Imagine a world where your customer service function anticipates customer needs and executes outreach campaigns flawlessly, all with minimum or no manual intervention. This is not a distant possibility but a reality achievable with today’s advancements in generative AI and LLMs. As time passes and both the business and its end customers evolve, Teleperformance’s model for identifying top candidates adapts to keep pace.

Shep Hyken is a world-renowned customer service and CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, researcher, and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books. His client list includes companies ChatGPT App in the Fortune 50 and businesses with less than 50 employees. In 2008, the National Speakers Association inducted Hyken into their Hall-of-Fame for lifetime achievement in the professional speaking industry.

Salesforce’s acquisition of Tenyx underscores its commitment to revolutionizing customer service through AI, reflecting its dedication to delivering next-generation customer service solutions. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2025, ending October 31, 2024, subject to customary closing conditions. At the same time, user loyalty can be fleeting, with up to 80% of banking customers willing to switch institutions for a better experience.

For example, businesses leveraging AI-driven platforms like Twilio Flex or HubSpot’s Service Hub are enhancing the way agents interact with customers. These systems use machine learning (ML) and predictive analytics to pull from customer data—such as previous purchases, interaction history, or browsing behavior—to deliver tailored solutions at every touchpoint. Intelligent Process Automation represents the next evolution of RPA, combining the basic task automation capabilities of RPA with the cognitive capabilities of AI, including ML, NLP and intelligent content recognition.

Get The Insights At Work Newsletter

In the current travel industry, digital interactions are crucial for customer experiences. As travelers become more tech-savvy, their expectations for seamless and personalized service rise. Teleperformance leverages AI to customer service solutions enhance customer service by handling routine inquiries, streamlining recruitment, and improving training. This hybrid approach enables travel brands to deliver efficient and empathetic service, even during disruptions.

This offers new hires consistent guidance, regardless of which employees aid in the onboarding and training processes. The Social Security Administration (SSA), which serves more than 70 million beneficiaries and delivers vital services to millions more every year, is experiencing a customer service crisis. Success depends on a multifaceted approach that blends investments in technology and people to give customers the omni-channel access they require. Self-service capability needs to be supported by in-person support for more complex customer queries. Strategic transformation should also seek to turn a traditionally reactive cost center into a proactive generator of increased revenues and brand value.

• Teleperformance leverages AI to enhance customer service by handling routine inquiries, streamlining recruitment, and improving training.
• Hippocratic AI trained its models on evidence-based medicine and completed rigorous testing with a large group of certified nurses and doctors.
• The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs), like GPT-4 or Mixtral, have taken NLP to the next level by generating human-like text based on vast amounts of data.
• The vast amount of data generated by the CRM platform became too much for the traditional system and a new solution had to be found.

AI CRM solutions have enhanced data analysis capabilities that analyze historical data and customer behavior. These factors help organizations with data insights, sales forecasting and streamlining which demographics to target. This strategic decision-making can lead to higher customer satisfaction and in turn, increase the likelihood of shopping at the store again. In fact, 94% of customers say a good service experience makes them more likely to make another purchase. This also equips leadership to make impactful decisions from customer conversations and bot analytics like user feedback, top customer flows, user acquisition details, bot performance, and bot activity.

Even with customers’ concerns and trepidation about interacting with an AI-fueled chatbot or voice recognition technology, it’s getting better. The problem is that not every company has adopted the latest and greatest, which in some cases is far better than other technology that’s just a year old. The result is that from one company or brand to the next, the customer doesn’t know what to expect.

Anthropic’s CEO quit OpenAI to set up the company in 2021 in hopes of building a more trusted model that had a focus on safety. Then there’s the question of accuracy, groundedness, and ensuring that an AI-powered chatbot is actually answering the questions posed by its human subjects. Ray is a news editor at The Fast Mode, bringing with him more than 10 years of experience in the wireless industry. After you express interest in one of the suggested jeans, the chatbot takes the opportunity to cross-sell by recommending a matching belt or a pair of shoes that would complement the jeans. The chatbot may also offer an upsell by suggesting a premium version of the jeans with additional features or a higher-end brand. PEAC partners and customers can use the No Pay Program along with the IRS 179 tax deduction program …

With AI-powered support experiences, retailers can enhance customer retention, strengthen brand loyalty and boost sales. CP All, Thailand’s sole licensed operator for 7-Eleven convenience stores, has implemented conversational AI chatbots in its call centers, which rack up more than 250,000 calls per day. Training the bots presented unique challenges due to the complexities of the Thai language, which includes 21 consonants, 18 pure vowels, three diphthongs and five tones. Customer service departments across industries are facing increased call volumes, high customer service agent turnover, talent shortages and shifting customer expectations. As always, Forrester clients looking to improve their customer service experience can schedule a guidance session here.