How AI Can Make Us Financially Intelligent

Financial companies that can successfully convert Artificial Intelligence into something actionable that customers can easily use in their daily lives will continue to thrive and succeed, building strong and lasting relationships with their customers.

There’s been a lot of talk about Artificial Intelligence these days, but AI can mean many different things to many different people.  By definition, artificial intelligence is “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition decision-making, and translation between languages.”  Essentially, this means computers are now able to do many of the things humans can do, which can be extremely helpful as workloads increase, tasks become more complex and people have less time to execute those tasks.  Many industries use AI to serve their customers by personalizing services that can simplify their lives.  In the case of budgeting and bill-paying, for example, AI can be of enormous value to both banks and customers alike.  Kavita Singh, VP of AI Product Management at Payrailz recently spoke about the ways in which AI can help create a smarter payments vision, which is especially important since the unprecedented spread of COVID-19.

AI Can Help People Save Money

Saving money is on everyone’s minds lately, even more so due to the pandemic.  However, setting up and sticking to a budget and then finding ways to save that aren’t immediately obvious can be challenging.  Data intelligence can help people manage their financial lives by identifying the bills they pay regularly and suggesting ways for them to save.

AI Can Help Credit Unions Work Smarter

Providing AI to customers is beneficial to credit unions because it extends their traditional in-person offerings into the digital world making them more essential partners to both existing and new customers.  As people are becoming less likely to conduct business in person, AI enables institutions to continue engaging with their customers, providing them with meaningful personal experiences.

AI Can Be Customized 

Since saving money is a top priority, but bills still have to be paid, AI enables credit unions to tailor their offerings based on what their customers want.  They can make the process of paying bills and saving money much easier.

Bill Paying

Bill paying consistently ranks as one of the most universally disliked tasks, yet keeping track of bills is almost as unpleasant as actually paying them.  This is where AI can really be helpful.   There are programs that learn what bills customers regularly pay, when it’s time to pay them and can send reminders if they notice they haven’t been paid yet.  They can even go one step further and pay the bill for their customers.  

Bill Negotiation

Most people don’t realize they are overpaying for services they use everyday.  In many cases, they sign up and then forget about it.  For the ones who do realize they are spending too much, the thought of calling a provider and waiting on hold to get to the right person is enough of a deterrent to accept the charges and avoid making the call.  Credit unions who partner with an AI company can eliminate this pain point completely.  Payrailz recently partnered with BillShark, a division of ApexEdge, integrating via back-end VPI to help its customers with customized bill-negotiation.  The AI system integrates seamlessly with Payrailz’s system to correctly identify where their customers were overpaying, notify them and ask them if they want them to help lower their bills without switching providers.  If the answer is yes, BillShark negotiates on their behalf, so they never need to pick up the phone.  AI uses data intelligence to learn spending habits, who the providers are and how much customers can save and then gets to work to help them save money.  The customer doesn’t know it’s BillShark doing the work, they only know their bank is helping them save money, which is a huge added value and solidifies their relationship.  

There has been a recent noticeable shift from brick and mortar banking to digital.  Consumers across demographics are moving away from cash and checks toward digital payments, both due to the pandemic and the need for convenience.  And once consumers go digital, they rarely go back, so this trend is most likely here to stay.