The world has embraced digital banking for its convenience and ease of use. Yet, for more complicated financial transactions, customers tell us they want to conduct business and interact with actual humans. Ultimately, what’s needed is balance – or a choice – between the convenience of digital banking and personal touch. Clients experience this touch when someone helps them apply for products or answer their questions in real time. It’s a combination we at Avanade call Human-Centered Digital Banking.

Surprisingly, a powerful technology (dominating the headlines right now), has emerged as the perfect tool to help put the humanity back in banking. Generative AI, the power behind ChatGPT-4 and similar tools, can help give customers the best of both worlds. At the same time, it can make financial institutions’ back-end operations even more efficient (read: cost-effective) than ever.

My team and I speak with professionals in the field every day about how they are deploying technologies like these. What we are seeing is a shift in the way banks see their customers, with a particular focus on increasing share of wallet all while simultaneously creating a seamless experience across channels.

The new era of experience platforms at work
This new human-centered approach to digital banking leverages a secure end-to-end, full-service virtual collaboration platform that incorporates elements of generative AI to:

• Customize and personalize a customer’s digital experience
• Automate and perform assigned tasks that free up personnel to help customers unlock value more quickly and easily

Generative AI, in its role as the platform’s co-pilot, provides both employees and customers greater convenience and options. The key: both sets of humans are empowered, not burdened by the technology.

Here’s how it could work: A customer – let’s call her Jane – enters a branded secure portal that automatically verifies her identity and provides her a range of options. She schedules a meeting with her financial advisor to discuss changes to her business financing. During their live call, she uploads an updated financial statement via a secure document sharing system, which she and her advisor then review in real time. By the end of the call, she and her advisor have established a joint set of tasks related to her banking needs and scheduled a follow-up meeting. Over the coming week, Jane logs on to the portal to complete her tasks and review material provided for her. An AI co-pilot assists her with navigation of the portal and also helps her track the status of her product application in real- time.

At the same time, Jeremy, Jane’s financial advisor, has access to a comprehensive dashboard that shows him all his active client opportunities, his upcoming meetings and the tasks related to each one. When he is ready, he can select Jane from among his list of clients to access a comprehensive, integrated account dashboard that gives him the information he needs to provide Jane with customized, best-in-class advice and service; winning Jane’s loyalty and making the best use of his time. An AI co-pilot let’s Jeremy search knowledge bases easily via plain-language queries and helps him identity the best fit products and services based on his client’s segment and needs.

At the end of the day, both Jeremy and Jane have a complete, securely stored account of their interactions that they can refer back to any time, all optimized for risk avoidance and in accordance with all laws and regulations.

All together now
If this all sounds too good to be true, you would be surprised. Systems like this are being deployed today by financial services organizations that recognize the power of positive human interaction to build customer loyalty and spur profitable growth.

And that’s good news. In an age characterized by the emergence of ground-breaking technologies, it is comforting to enjoy the convenience of digital banking, as well as have the option to speak with an actual human being if we choose.

Discover more ways in which we are helping banks find the balance between human and digital interactions.