SAN ANTONIO–There is a fine line between being creepy and being helpful when it comes to using artificial intelligence, but understanding where that line is can make all the difference in building loyalty and usage among members, according to one person.
Successfully walking that fine line is all about connecting the dots between AI, big data and the consumer/member, according to Sundeep Kapur of Digital Credence, Inc.
Connecting those dots means using AI and its “ability to quickly analyze lots of transactions, evaluate probabilities (possibilities) ascertain past preferences, and include other factors/variables,” he told the Cornerstone Credit Union League’s Leadership Conference.
Rather than replacing employees, although that happens, too, Kapur said what AI does is improve the interaction. “There is a human being involved who can now have a better conversation,” he said.
The great challenge, he noted, is making sense of all the data a credit union has, including “unstructured data” that he said sounds like a “gibberish, but it’s stuff people talk about.”
“It’s about data access and security and making sure this is done automatically,” Kapur said.
But there is a caveat, he added: “Traditionally, we always focus on analytics and reporting. What is the point of giving someone 600 pages of a report when all they need is two or three lines to tell them what to do?”
Kapur asked these three questions: Can computers be programmed to perform tasks? Can computers learn behaviors? Can computers help make decisions. The answers to all three is an obvious yes, he stated. Instead, the real answer that needs to be found is how to use those three obvious answers to find specific impacts where a difference can be made, he said.
What Consumers Want
To that end, the question of what consumers want is key, and from financial institutions, they want three things, he said:
- They want it to be easy and convenient
- They want some incentive to transact with the CU
- They want safety and security and protection of their information
“We have to build our strategy around that,” he told the meeting.
Perfecting Services
A credit union needs to ask its members “How can we help you?” People like to be recognized, he reminded, and knowing that should help tailor every conversation.
“Technology can be used to hasten communication and personalize it so you can now say, ‘Hi, Liz, what else can we do for you?’” Kapur said.
One area to apply that technology is in circumventing fraud, according to Kapur, referring to the kinds of alerts that notify members of purchases they have made (or have not made).
“Members appreciate being warned,” he said.
What members also want, according to Kapur, is “precise offers.” Such offers can be made on preferences and behaviors that are stated, observed or implied based on AI. There is no better example of using AI to make offers than Amazon, he said, especially when it comes to the latter two preferences.
Common Words, But…
Kapur noted it’s common to hear at credit unions the words “journeys” and “journey mapping” as a means of understanding where a member is in his or her life, and what they want.
“How do we communicate with that member and build these journeys in? They need to be safe, super-fast and personalized conversations,” he said.
He urged credit unions their tellers understand how the CU’s mobile app works, as it makes both them and the member more efficient and effective.
There is another great untapped resource in credit unions, Kapur added.
“We have so much data in e-statements, but both the credit union and the member have to work to get through it,” he said. “What can we do to get back to the basics to get them to pay attention to that statement, to make it intuitive?”