SINGAPORE—Citi has beta launched a banking chatbot on Facebook Messenger that is capable of providing customer account information to users.
Dubbed Citi Bot, the chatbot will make its debut in the Singapore market and be progressively introduced to the wider Asia Pacific region in the coming months, FinTech Innovation reported.
“The chatbot's launch is a world-first for Citi in a social media network,” FinTech Innovation said.
Citi Bot operates using natural language processing, a branch of artificial intelligence that concerns programming computers to understand the nuances of human language. Citi is aiming for the chatbot to interact with customers in a “personable and intuitive manner, similar to how human conversation is conducted,” FinTech Innovation explained.
According to Han Kwee Juan, CEO for Citibank Singapore Limited, the popularity of Facebook Messenger deems it a suitable channel for Citi to engage its mobile and digitally savvy customers, FinTech Innovation said.
Initially, Citi Bot will cater to basic banking queries such as checking of account balances and transactions, providing credit card bill summaries, rewards and point balances and answering frequently asked questions, FinTech Innovation explained.