North Side of Montreal will launch its VerbalAccess software at Finovate conference in NYC on September 16.
VerbalAccess enables accessing banking and financial services through text-messaging or voice. The key innovation: customers can ask questions or conduct transactions in English using their own words and get precise answers. “When VerbalAccess doesn’t understand you, it asks questions to clarify your intent,” says Eugene Joseph, North Side’s CEO.
“VerbalAccess offers a conversational interface to a wide range of financial services: payments, transfers, applying for loans, exploring credit scores, searching for investments, managing credit cards, researching rewards, buying insurance and filing claims - are some of them.”
“VerbalAccess will increase customer satisfaction by eliminating wait times. Text-messaging or voice-based banking is a cool experience that will increase engagement, both from millennial customers and customers who aren’t as tech-savvy. By deflection calls from live agents, VerbalAccess improves profitability. When customer explore financial solutions using their own words, they discover the particular loans, investments, credit cards or insurance products best suited to their needs,” said Joseph.
VerbalAccess relies on Natural Language Understanding technology that North Side first applied to its Bot Colony video game. North Side believes VerbalAccess to be the first software able to return precise answers by conversing to clarify user intent. While other Intelligent Agent software such as Apple's Siri, GoogleNow, Microsoft's Cortana and Nuance’s Nina are able to handle commands and answer questions, VerbalAccess is the first to engage customers in conversation, in a quest to return the precise answer the user was looking for and execute transactions precisely.
“VerbalAccess enables a new experience – empowering self-service through text-messaging or voice. Voice-based banking enables people to bank while they’re stuck in traffic, walking, waiting to be served or riding an exercise bike – making it very easy for them to do what they want, when they want, from anywhere,” says Joseph.
“Finovate is the ideal venue for launching major fintech innovations and we are excited that North Side has chosen Finovate to launch its conversation-based interface to financial services,” said Eric Mattson, the CEO of Finovate.
In the near term, North Side is looking to partner with a limited number of financial institutions interested in validating and deploying VerbalAccess.