Bank of America says customers are warming to its AI-driven virtual financial assistant Erica, which has surpassed 6 million users and completed more than 35 million client requests.
Rolled out to BofA's millions of customers over the summer, Erica helps users with a host of simple transactions such as money transfers and balance enquiries.
“Since launching Erica’s proactive insights late last year, daily client engagement with Erica has doubled,” says David Tyrie, head of advanced solutions and digital banking at Bank of America. “Consistent with our high-tech, high-touch strategy, we’ll continue evolving our best-in-class digital banking capabilities, including Erica, to provide clients relevant, timely guidance and help make managing their finances easier.”
The milestone in user engagement coincides with the introduction of a series of new features in the mobile app, including several new Erica insights that offer clients personalised, proactive guidance to help them stay on top of their finances.
These include warnings about an increase in recurring charges, including regular subscriptions and seasonal variations in energy bills, rewards notifications and enrollment guidance, and bill payment reminders.
In addition to the latest Erica enhancements, the bank is giving clients more flexibility and security on daily spending through new functionality in the app which allows clients to set, manage and control how much they spend on purchases or withdraw from an ATM each day.
Postscript: Not all clients are impressed with Erica's cognitive capacity
Finextra’s NextGen Banking London 2019 conference on 16 May will bring together practitioners from across the financial services industry to explore what the AI revolution means for banks - and what financial institutions need to do in the short, medium and longer terms to benefit from AI, and ensure their customers do so as well.