What is IBM Watson again?
Watson is an advanced, ever-evolving cognitive technology developed by IBM that learns and draw conclusions from data, based on informal communication, and natural language interactions. Watson can read and understand unstructured data like customer questions, and search through millions of data points in just moments to find the best answer.
This kind of technology is becoming a big point of interest for many banks, who own a vast amount of customer data, much of which is constantly under study to create improved banking experiences for their customers, as well as improve their operational efficiency internally.
How can Watson help the Banking Industry?
IBM Watson has the capability to integrate AI, data analytics and chat bots into a single platform to “cognify” the whole banking experience. It can provide customers with conversational self-service, and a consistent banking experience over multiple channels, as well as personalized financial guidance and automated programs that can help them meet their financial goals.
Here are some of the specific use cases of Watson in the Banking industry:
1. 24 x 7 x 365 uninterrupted customer support to respond to the customers’ queries and provide information on new products and services around the clock. Watson can also be used to complement the live agents with virtual agents to scale support and lower costs.
2. Delivery of personalized marketing and cross selling opportunities based on the customers’ profile data, recent behaviors and life events.
3. Personal banking services such as checking of account balance, request for a statement of transactions or even request for funds transfer using a simple bot interface and authentication methods.
4. Providing personalized financial guidance and advice based on real time analysis of customers account transactions and spending patterns.
5. Assisting the service agents by alleviating the burden of searching for information across different systems. Watson can provide professionals the ability to find the information they need in seconds.
6. Fraud prevention –Watson can be programmed to monitor and recognize warning signs of any fraudulent activity, so it can notify the affected customer in real time via their messaging app.
It is imperative that with constant advances in AI, bots will only get more intelligent over time giving banks the opportunity to create more intimate customer relationships.