The Bank of the Future is Already Here
Those that think services enhanced by artificial intelligence are just a thing of the far future could not be more wrong—the banking of the future can even be realised with the technologies available today.
This was clearly demonstrated by financial software developer VeriPark at the recently held Microsoft Future Decoded conference, whose clients include numerous large banks. The company did not talk at length about the technologies—its products and solutions are actually based on Microsoft solutions infused with artificial intelligence—instead it showed how they can be used to provide a more comprehensive and seamless customer experience, and every expert agrees that in the future (or today even) customer experience will be a more important factor than price when selecting a service or service provider.
VeriPark’s imaginary, but very easily realised, story starts off with a bank analysing the data of a young man who has an account with them using machine learning and AI. Recently he set up a joint account with someone, and from this fact (and other available information) the bank judges that he may be interested in home loan offers, because he probably wants to move in with someone and for that you need an apartment.
The bank then sends him an offer to his mobile phone for a home loan. However, at that time our hero is at a football match, so he can’t call anyone, but he is very interested in the offer. Nothing is lost, he talks with the chatbot, and arranges an appointment at the nearest bank branch.
When he steps into the bank branch, the intelligent camera system is able to identify him using facial recognition and direct him to the appropriate office/desk. In the meantime the bank clerk has received all the relevant information about the customer through the integrated systems, even before meeting in person.
This information naturally includes the data stored by the bank and the insights concluded from this data, and even the information made public on the customer’s social media, so the clerk is well prepared to start the meeting and make an offer that really is personalised and adapted to the customer’s current situation in life.
He is sufficiently amazed at the lightning-fast service and the good offer, and so he signs the home loan contract. In the meanwhile the clerk sees in the system that he has used his credit card less often recently, which is an early sign of customer churn. Taking advantage of the good mood, the clerk offers our hero a new, better credit card contract, which also meets with his approval.
“None of this needs witchery,” said Onur Çınga, VeriPark’s regional sales manager when we asked him about the solution. Behind the scenes, several Microsoft systems and services—Dynamics 365, Office 365, Azure and Cognitive Services—are operating, which are all integrated and do their work together.