NAB reveals virtual banker for business customers
(5 September 2017 – Australia) National Australia Bank (NAB) has announced the launch of a “virtual banker” aimed at business customers.
The bank says the “Australian-first” technology enables business “to receive instant answers and assistance with common banking questions and tasks.”
The bank said its virtual banker is in pilot and available around the clock via its website, providing assistance with more than 200 common questions related to the servicing of business banking accounts.
NAB Chief Operating Officer Antony Cahill said, “Our research shows that two thirds of Australian SMEs cite dealing with administrative tasks as taking a lot of effort, and our customers desperately want to spend more time on their business and less time on dealing with admin tasks.
“’We’re working hard to make banking an easy and supportive experience for our customers and technology like this helps save business customers critical time. When they have a question about their banking, our virtual banker is there to help solve it 24 hours a day, seven days a week; it’s a simple and seamless on-the-go experience.
“We will continue to develop the virtual banker over coming months, enabling an even broader and more diverse range of instant answers and guidance for business customers.”
According to NAB, the virtual assistant’s artificial intelligence (AI) has been developed from “thousands of real-life customer enquiries”. There are more than 13,000 variants of the 200 questions the virtual banker can answer; if the question can’t be answered, the customer will then be directed to a human banker.
NAB said its customers were involved in the testing and development phase, with more than 75 percent saying a virtual banking was a highly desirable offering that would help them with their banking needs.
According to East & Partners’ SME Transaction Banking research, despite holding leading market share among the small business segment, NAB customers are showing consistent churn within the segment, as its closest rivals close the gap. Meanwhile, the bank is also struggling to achieve “top of mind” mindshare for online and e-banking services, ranking sixth, well behind the other major banks.
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