The Future of Personalized Banking: Virtual Assistants

The financial services industry is facing new demands. Today’s customers demand personalized banking services, but financial service institutions have been hesitant to adopt newer technologies due to robust legacy systems, the lack of explainability and trust in new tools, and regulatory factors. Thankfully, modern banking virtual assistants deliver banking personalization without sacrificing security.

What Is Personalized Banking?

Personalized banking may sound nebulous, but it is actually very straightforward. For example, you might recognize personalized banking in customized greetings based on your language or location. 

You can also see personalized banking in customized interactions based on previous behaviors or interactions with your bank, tailored reminders related to upcoming payments, or other proactive, personalized messages to provide better service. 

Personalization takes customer service to the next level by delivering meaningful experiences.

Benefits of Personalized Banking

There are several ways financial institutions can personalize services and communications. Financial service companies must build value by prioritizing customer experience in today’s competitive environment. Customers are looking for more than just transactions from their banks – they’re looking for valuable insight and advice from industry experts. For customers to value this insight, there must first be a foundation of trust. However, customer trust in banks has decreased in the past two years, which creates an opportunity for banks to deliver personalization.

Data shows that building meaningful customer relationships through personalization is a challenge financial institutions face.

Tailoring the customer experience can help banks build trust and rapport with customers. Personalization also delivers several other benefits, which is why providers are investing in it. A few of these benefits include:

• Enhanced customer satisfaction: When you create a personalized banking experience for customers, such as sending tailored reminders related to upcoming payments, you bridge operational data across multiple customer journey touchpoints. These efforts make it easier for customers to access their finances and increase customer satisfaction.
• Increased engagement and conversion rates: A personalized banking experience helps consumers proactively and efficiently manage their finances based on real-time insight. With a clear picture of their financial standing, customers can decide what financial next steps they need to take. 
• Improved customer loyalty and retention: As a financial service provider, you can present the most relevant financial solutions to customers based on where they are in their journey. Arming customers with insight into their personal banking needs can help connect and increase reliance on your services. As a source of actionable insight, you’ll boost loyalty and trust among customers. 

Combining these benefits can deliver more substantial ROI to banks as they prioritize personalization. Personalization can also alleviate common pain points that customers experience in banking. For example, shopping for a new credit card is the least satisfying banking journey for customers, with the application process not far behind. Modern tools can help automate and create a better experience in the customer journey.

What Are Banking Virtual Assistants?

Virtual assistants (often known as virtual agents, even though they’re technically different) are software programs that interact with people using AI, machine learning, and voice-recognition technology. These customer service tools are sometimes confused with chatbots, but are more advanced. Banking virtual assistants are powered by the intelligent technologies referenced above and can handle a more complex range of finance-related questions and transactions. These virtual agents can understand voice-based and text-based inquiries. They can also handle more specific, personalized requests, such as sending money to friends and family or quickly pulling up data on recent transactions.

How Virtual Banking Assistants Personalize Banking

Integrating banking virtual assistants personalizes support and can help reduce common customer requests. The main reasons banking customers call support teams are to resolve billing issues and receive account management support. Banking virtual assistants can streamline these everyday tasks and enhance the customer experience.

Based on a survey Intrado conducted, banking customers typically call support teams to resolve billing issues and receive account management support.

Below are three ways you can drive personalization with virtual banking assistants. 

Elevate contact center operations and communications

Virtual banking assistants allow you to gather data, learn about customer behavior, and predict customer needs. Financial institutions can streamline call center transactions based on the customer’s unique situation with this information.

Design intelligent customer support journeys

Banks can use virtual banking assistants to monitor how customers interact along the customer journey. For example, virtual banking assistants can watch how customers navigate opening an account and use those actions to suggest future process upgrades. 

Deliver immediate customer service

Banking virtual assistants deliver immediacy. Customers can contact their bank at any time through various channels (e.g., internet, mobile, email, etc.) and receive quick, real-time responses. These intelligent banking assistants gather and leverage data from customers’ past interactions to improve issue resolution. With virtual banking assistants, you can make informed decisions about how your customer support team communicates with customers based on their individual needs and behaviors.

Personalized alerts and recommendations

IVAs can analyze customer interactions to create specific alerts that matter. For instance, sending reminders to a customer who has a history of transferring money to savings on payday. 

Since these AI-driven assistants are monitoring all transactions, they can also notify customers about unusual account activity based on their spending patterns. Even a small purchase in another state is reason enough to be flagged for a customer who is not known to travel. That said, IVAs are smart enough to tone down their alerts for frequent travelers. 

Additionally, virtual banking assistants can recommend financial products that match customer needs shown through their banking behavior. A customer who maintains high checking balances might receive information about certificates of deposit with higher interest rates. Someone who pays high credit card interest could see suggestions for lower-rate consolidation loans.

These tailored communications increase customer engagement while creating natural opportunities to introduce relevant products.

Operational Benefits of Banking Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants can also benefit financial institutions in other ways that help improve operations, reduce costs, and better serve customers. Banking has changed because people have changed their interactions with technology, products, and services around them. 

While before individuals may have been comfortable going to a physical location to handle their banking needs, today, especially for newer generations, customer expectations for personalized banking have shifted toward digital convenience. Having a digital option to handle their requirements without having to speak to an agent is now expected.

With virtual assistants, financial institutions can:

• Provide 24/7 support: One of the primary benefits of having a virtual assistant is being able to empower users by having 24/7 support. While not all of the potential queries can be solved by a virtual assistant, understanding your users, their problems, and the reasons they call you can help implement a virtual assistant that helps them solve most of their issues without having to speak to an agent unless necessary (more complex concerns). 
• Operational efficiency: Handling mass operations at a financial institution is a challenge, no matter the systems you have in place. But, with a virtual assistant on your team, you can increase efficiency by letting customer representatives focus on higher-value interactions and more complex problems, reduce hold times for end users, and also increase their satisfaction. On top of that, an efficient system also means opportunities to reduce costs, allowing you to increase your efforts and investments in other areas of the business. 

• Scalability: Virtual assistants are also, in the end, a technology that can adapt to your needs and scale with you in the long run. Skipping the limitations of previous technologies and methods reduces technical debt, increasing your operational efficiency and helping your decision-making processes. 
• Improved efficiency of human agents: With virtual banking assistants handling common customer questions about account details and basic services, human agents are free to utilize their actual specialized knowledge and skills to manage complex customer cases. A customer with complicated banking issues will appreciate spending less time waiting for help since the specialized agent is free to dedicate more attention to their case. 

Real World Examples of Virtual Banking Assistants

Let’s look at how some of the top banking systems in the world are utilizing virtual assistants to their advantage. 

Bank of America's Erica stands out as a key component of their digital banking platform. Since launch, Erica has processed over 1 billion customer interactions. Customers use Erica for everyday tasks like balance checks and transaction reviews.

Erica also provides credit score updates directly in the banking app, eliminating the need for customers to check separate websites. The assistant spots potential issues like duplicate charges and subscription price increases, then notifies customers before these become problems.

When suspicious activity occurs, Erica alerts customers quickly with specific details about the concerning transactions. This immediate notification helps prevent fraud and gives customers confidence in their account security.

Erica's specific tasks and measurable results demonstrate how virtual assistants add practical value to banking services through timely information and problem prevention.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Ceba manages over 200 different banking tasks for customers. Customers complete fund transfers and bill payments through the assistant without navigating multiple menu screens.

Ceba is smart enough to analyze individual spending patterns and suggest practical ways to adjust habits. For example, it might point out that a customer spends $85 weekly on coffee shop purchases and recommend a specific savings target based on reducing this amount.

The assistant processes approximately 50,000 customer questions daily. This high volume handling reduces wait times for customers and keeps service consistent regardless of the time of day. 

Capital One's Eno works across web, mobile app, and SMS platforms to provide constant customer support. Customers check balances and track spending through whichever channel they prefer.

The assistant makes sure to remind customers about upcoming bills before due dates, helping them avoid late fees. These reminders include specific payment amounts and deadlines.

Eno also generates temporary virtual card numbers for online purchases. Customers use them instead of their actual card details, which prevents data theft during website breaches. If one merchant suffers a security issue, other accounts remain protected.

Transform Your Banking Experience With Mosaicx Virtual Assistant

At Intrado, we recognize the shift toward personalized digital support channels, which is why we introduced Mosaicx, an AI-powered customer service platform. A Mosaicx intelligent virtual agent (IVA) serves as an advanced virtual assistant in banking, using advances in AI, machine learning, and predictive intent. It understands conversations and can efficiently and accurately solve customer inquiries, including moving to the “next best action” based on their question. 

Using machine learning, Mosaicx can accurately anticipate why a customer is reaching out. In addition, we continue to evolve the Mosaicx platform, which means we’re better able to understand customer needs as they change.

Today’s financial institutions realize the importance of modern technologies in delivering personalized customer service. Predictive intent, paired with AI-powered technology, is a game-changer for any financial institution. Banking virtual assistants are one such technology playing a central role in helping banks build trust between themselves and their customers. Armed with a greater understanding of your customers’ needs, you can provide ease of engagement and intelligent recommendations to serve them better.