A new survey from Amelia, a leader in Enterprise Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI), found that 83% of participants believe that Conversational AI will positively impact the banking sector. The survey was conducted during the recent annual Customer Owned Banking Association conference on the Gold Coast.

According to the survey, more than three-quarters of customer-owned banks are in the exploration phase of utilising AI technologies. A wide majority of industry leaders believe that these progressive technologies will ultimately enhance their abilities to provide even better service to customers due to improved responsiveness.

Andrew Winlaw, Vice President and General Manager ANZ at Amelia, suggests that enhancing customer experiences is a primary technology investment focus for 81% of the surveyed participants. Simultaneously, 64% aim to decrease the contact centre abandonment rate, and 33% strive to improve process automation across their operations. Furthermore, a third of respondents highlighted the support of overall sustainability goals as a core focus.

In the highly competitive financial services realm, deriving commercial value from technology investments is an absolute imperative. The primary factor in delivering on their AI ambitions, for 50% of respondents, was the ability to think in terms of outcomes rather than use cases. Crafting a dual AI strategy and constructing the correct data platform architecture were seen as critical aspects to 22% and 17% of respondents, respectively. Concurrently, only 17% said improving fraud detection capabilities was their primary aim.

Chatbots and virtual assistants, powered by Conversational AI, have become a significant feature in the financial sector landscape due to their ability to offer more responsive and personalised customer service. Almost 95% of respondents identified these virtual assistants as the most applicable AI capability for their operations. At the same time, 50% viewed knowledge management and automated customer lifecycle management as highly relevant.

Banking leaders expressed their hope that almost 70% of AI would be utilised to deliver personalised proposals, specifically investment options tailored to individual customer needs. They also envision AI tools generating valuable information to assist customers in making informed decisions. On another note, 47% stated that AI technology should primarily serve employees by providing improved access to research and data.

"The customer-owned banking sector already appreciates the true value of AI - its capacity to enhance problem-solving skills and assist others," noted Andrew Winlaw. He further added, "AI technologies like Conversational AI and generative AI can result in intelligent virtual assistants that drive cost savings as well as increased customer and employee satisfaction."

Winlaw believes that local financial institutions can leverage AI technology to reimagine their customer experience and drive meaningful business value via increased operational efficiency. "We're living in an era of unprecedented innovation, and there are endless possibilities for this industry to explore and experiment," he concluded.