Expert: Eric Tyree, Head of Research & Artificial Intelligence, Blueprism and Facilitator: Gilly Green, Sionic
Key Takeaways
- Technology affords both superior levels of customer service as well as efficiency and productivity gains.
- Funneling workloads to robots while a conversation is ongoing is another win.
- Adding AI to intelligent automation takes things a stage further. But it is heavily reliant on data.
- Open banking will help to provide data - but there are security concerns.
- Cultural change within firms is also needed.
Highlights
1. Technology affords both superior levels of customer service as well as efficiency and productivity gains.
Automation of repetitive and non-revenue generating processes is the fuel of the efficiency fire. Anything that requires the same thing to be done over and over, such as compliance or onboarding is a relatively easy win. An intelligent worker can also prepare reports for an adviser ahead of meeting- doing the heavy lifting and giving time back to people to perform revenue generating tasks.
2. Funnelling workloads to robots while a conversation is ongoing is another win.
Examples include matching best deals on a product or matching investment to a risk profile. This works best when the decision-making process is rules based. Being able to so this using an automation layer rather than new software means that the costs and the time taken to introduce or change processes are minimal.
3. Adding AI to intelligent automation takes things a stage further. But it is heavily reliant on data.
AI enables an end to end, interactive approach. Triage and classification can be done quite easily but understanding freeform text and unstructured data is harder and less reliable at present. AI can monitor a conversation with a customer and action well defined, rules based tasks and producing a reliable result - form filling is a good example. Basic decisioning can also be used either in isolation or alongside a human in say, a call centre.
4. Open banking will help to provide data - but there are security concerns.
GDPR is really focused on protecting the customer’s personal data and is a force for good.It is worth noting that lot of financial crime happens due to people rather than systems and that open banking is just a data exchange.People are wary of how their data is being used and so providers need to offer a clear benefit in sharing data as well as be transparent about how it is used and the security around that.
5. Cultural change within firms is also needed
Within a company there also needs to be a clear message around the gains afforded by an intelligent workforce. It is easier sometimes for people to carry on doing what they are doing rather than adopt something new unless there is a clear and easy win/ benefit.Technology is way ahead of where we are in our thinking and we need to have a bit of imagination and faith to drive things forward.
