Bots to the rescue

A robot interacting with banking customers, especially digital banking customers has been the case for some time now. And some months ago, HDFC Bank had introduced the first humanoid robot named Ira at select branches to interact and address customer concerns. Quick to use technology in their business operations, other players in the BFSI space are not far behind—AMCs and insurers are fast using chat bots, short for chatting robots to interact with digital consumers on several fronts.

These interfaces are backed by artificial intelligence and a search engine that throws up the most appropriate response to the queries posed to them. Just a week ago, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance had launched Boing, its chatbot to address customer queries in motor and health insurance. This launch is in line with earlier offerings by ICICI Lombard and HDFC Life that had introduced chatbots in recent times to address customer queries.

Smart machines

Spok from HDFC Life, not only answers queries but is also able to send policy documents through emails. MyRA by ICICI Lombard has been around for about six months and is evolving every time it addresses a prospect or policyholder concern. The upside of these bots is the efficient manner in which they are able to address concerns, which otherwise would involve human intervention on actions where an otherwise standard response is possible. For instance, queries about policy coverage or costs can be answered by bots at a faster pace than humans.

While one may feel the lack of human touch when interacting with bots, the rising number of financial consumers has necessitated the emergence of technology to address their concerns at a faster pace. For instance, instead of getting into a multi-call response to policyholders on claims or renewals, bots can act faster and address multiple parties at the same time. The efficiency that bots demonstrate allow humans to focus on issues where the need for intervention is a must.

olmdesk@outlookindia.com