U.S. banking giant Citi is about to launch a natural language chatbot in Hong Kong, having gathered some first experience with the new tool in Singapore.
Developed in Singapore, the launch of the chatbot in the city-state was Citi’s first globally and a test for roll outs in other markets. Now, the chatbot will soon go live in another Asian finance hub, Priscilla Ng, the Hong Kong head of digital banking told «The South China Morning Post».
While other banks in Hong Kong have launched app-based chatbots for customer inquiries, Citi’s is the first Facebook messenger-embedded chatbot to let customers conduct transactions and access their own financial records.
Institutional Bots
Ng sees 2019 as the time mobile payments will become mainstream in Hong Kong, aided by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority as it nudges the standardization of QR payment codes. With around five million users in Hong Kong, Ng said Facebook was the priority delivery platform of the bank.
Bank customers across Asia have been quick to embrace artificial intelligence. The use of artificial intelligence in Asian financial services is not limited to consumer banking however. Schroders Singapore recently launched a beta version of Schroders GO, an online chatbot also operating through Facebook messenger.
