Royal Bank of Scotland is to explore the potential of using an AI bot to answer customer queries following a successful two-month trial of the technology among 1200 staff.
The virtual assistant, named Luvo, is able to understand questions from staff posed via Web chat and then filter through huge amounts of information in a split second before responding with the answer. If Luvo is unable to find the answer, it passes the query on to a member of staff who can solve more complex problems.
The bot has a warm ‘human’ like personality, says RBS, making it easier for employees to interact with and seek help from.
In the months to come, RBS says it will be exploring if Luvo could be used to answer questions direct from customers, "although this will only be considered after small, voluntary, customer pilots". its introduction could reduce the need for people to wait for a human advisor to be free to answer a simple question, says the bank, and at the same time free up time for staff to answer more complex problems.
Simon McNamara, RBS chief administrative officer says: “Luvo is a really exciting new technology that brings artificial intelligence to life and will help our staff serve customers better by resolving their questions and problems much more quickly. Its potential is huge and we’ll be exploring if Luvo could talk to customers directly to answer straightforward questions, freeing up time for our staff to answer complex issues.”