Digitization of Retail Banking is undergoing a difficult period in many countries. Retail Banking itself is undergoing a difficult period.
Retail Banks, must reduce costs of their retail operations. This is mainly because the profitability of Retail Banking is low.
A principal source of cost in Retail Banking is manpower.
The emergence of AI, led the top management of a Retail Bank to seek the solution in a hurry, using voice AI.
The mistake was not in seeking the solution there but in doing it in a hurry.
This Retail Bank, decided to reduce the personnel that answers customers in phone banking. They decided to replace them with a virtual employee, operating with a form of audio AI.
They did that in a hurry, without properly testing the system before so that they irritated two out of three customers.
Not all present AI systems are as good as they claim to be. The provider often shows to the management of the Retail Bank the cheese, without showing them the mousetrap. This is the case of this Retail Bank.
Its new Audio AI system is not providing anything that was not provided before, with the pressing of a digit on a smartphone.
Very often the system does not understand the question of the Customer, resulting in the frustration of its Customers.
Eventually the system will be corrected and will be properly operational.
The memory of the bad service due to this system, will remain in the mind of the Customers a long time. This will affect the service reputation of the Bank.
The decision of a management team to adopt an audio AI system, is a premature one.
Companies like Google and Apple, still find difficulties with their audio AI systems.
Retail Banks, in their eagerness to cut costs, often proceed with digitization’s in a faster pace than it is prudent.
There are three, Murphy’s law, rules to remember with these systems:
- No ΑΙ system is as good as it claims to be.
- The system will fail when first applied.
- The Retail Bank will pay both the costs of the previous system and the costs of the new system. That for a considerable period of time.
This problem appears in many other Businesses, not only Retail Banks.
But, for a curious reason, Banks succumb to it sooner and more often.
Caveat emptor!
