Customers of financial services firms across Asia are rapidly embracing solutions based on artificial intelligence. Insurer Allianz is the latest to roll out a natural language chatbot.
In a first for the Taiwan insurance industry, Allianz Taiwan Life and IBM implemented cognitive technology to create an artificial intelligence (AI) customer assistant. Customers of the insurer will be able to interact with the chatbot on its Taiwan Life website starting this week, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The new bot named «Allie» will serve customers online by using smart technology to identify policyholders, respond to questions and requests and allow cross-platform operations. IBM and Allianz Taiwan Life claim their new service raises the bar in the chatbot market that currently relies on simple words to chat with customers. Allie is designed to present complex financial information using images, a breakthrough in the insurance industry from text communications of the past.
AI on a Roll
Singapore-based OCBC bank introduced AI-powered chatbot «Emma» in 2016 to respond to customers’ queries on home and renovation loans, and has since raked in more than S$100 million in home loans. Fellow Singapore lender DBS ushered-in its own digibank virtual assistant in January 2017. The artificial intelligence-driven chatbot understands natural language and is able to respond in real-time.
U.S. banking giant Citi joined the rush launching its own chatbot in the city-state, a precursor to it being rolled out in other markets. The bot is able to address a range of needs such as checking of account balances and transactions, providing credit card bill summaries and answering frequently asked questions.
