Conversational AI is a Purpose-Built Platform, Not an Add-on

What Your Conversational AI Partner Should Do For You

Conversational AI continues to become more popular within the financial service industry. Many FIs are uncovering how conversational AI can solve critical pain points such as high call volumes, abandonment rates, staff burnout, hiring constraints and much more. In addition, the need to enhance the customer experience continues to be a must. Retaining existing customers while attracting new ones requires innovation and the ability to do business easily and efficiently. 

As many will find, choosing an AI partner can be difficult in today’s current landscape. Ensuring that you go live with a full set of engagements either digitally or by voice is critical. What’s important for you to remember is that your AI partner needs to be able to provide all of the below: 

• Fully comprehend your business and the ability to meet your current needs 
• Scale and grow your business for the future, constantly evolving their capabilities and advancements with the customer in mind 
• Create actionable plans that involve tangible results 
• Have a proven track record of success, proving strong delivery and implementation 
• Provide consult to your business, acting as a true partner rather than just a vendor 

Remember, nothing is more concerning and disappointing than to invest in technology that lacks delivery at go live, affecting customer experience. Change is already strenuous for most customers, making seamless delivery and meeting expectations integral to maintaining the customer experience.  

Creating a successful implementation strategy involves succinct deployment, member adoption with an emphasis on customer education. However, it will not matter how well customers have been educated if there is a lack of functionality and thoughtful engagement. 

A through-line in the partnership needs to also be transparency and customizability - your conversational AI provider needs to be able to fully understand your business so they can use their knowledge to your advantage. A provider’s lack of understanding can lead to a depersonalized sales plan, which commonly takes the form of add-ons. 

The Common Pitfall of Add-ons 

Many AI providers have a key niche, offering a primary product that truly makes a difference to clients like SMS, chat or video, other ITMs, etc. FI’s need to be particularly cautious of additional add-ons to initial offerings. 

We all know about add-ons; they are convenient and a nice-to-have, but oftentimes, they cannot deliver what is expected and wind up becoming a risky deployment for the FI at a high cost. 

When thinking about conversational AI, it’s in the FI’s best interest to choose a partner that is a proven industry leader and has credible history in conversational AI, not an unspecialized partner that promises AI and “more." The pitfalls of having an AI partner that stretches in many different directions with conflicting directives results in a lack of quality of service and a focus on selling products over success.  

Add-on providers will say they can provide it, but FIs need to dig in. Fis and customers deserve more than basic engagement at go live, not to mention customization based on each individual FI brand and culture. It may be easier to partner with one provider that has many add-ons, but is it if continued work is required to get the customer experience to par?  By the time the product is to par, will the customers come back or try again? Not to mention will they ever be caught up if it is not their key focus, in new features and functionality?  

Pitfalls of AI as an Add-On

• The vendor has limited experience building a great AI products which means inferior features and delays
• The vendor priorities and protects its core business which is not based on AI products
• The vendor sells a promise of the future, which tends to lead to product shortcuts to hit deadlines
• The vendor’s service and support are diluted to support multiple product lines 

Benefits of Purpose Built 

• Specialists are designing, building, and servicing the AI platform, creating a world class experience for banking institutions and their customers 
• AI is evolving at a rapid pace, an AI-focused vendor is investing all their R&D into AI and ensuring the latest technology is commercially viable for the banking industry
• Niche software companies provide a connected platform across all AI channels creating a seamless user and customer experience  
• Cloud software is designed for software interoperability through open APIs removing the integration complexity and maintenance difficulties of the past. 

Specialized Service Remains Superior 

In summary, conversational AI is a powerful technology that, when deployed mindfully, can lead to higher customer satisfaction, lead generation opportunities, better quality of service and so much more. It’s imperative to find a conversational AI provider that only builds and supports AI and has a full ecosystem to support it. Your customers deserve nothing short of specialized excellence.

These days, everyone uses the term “white glove service” having it only equate to VIP service. However, challenge your AI provider to equip you with service that goes beyond: service that encompasses true knowledge, historical experience and tangible results.  The right provider will not only have that, but can help your FI reach it’s full potential. 

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