RPA-Driven Chatbots Bank on Feminine Wiles

Almost every field of commercial endeavour has undergone radical change, driven by cutting-edge technology that permits implementation of more efficient and economical financial strategy, preserving sustainable growth at the same time.

Banks, for example, have implemented unique products and services related to investment, crowdsourcing, digital banking, and cashless transactions. AI-driven applications play a key role in their virtual realm, providing a user-friendly environment where clients can conduct monetary and other transactions anywhere, anytime.

Most banks have improved their procedures using robotic process automation (RPA), a self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology, to carry out mundane chores in accordance with a set of rules established in advance. And for seamless operation, they are combining RPA technology with chatbots. These chatbots process conversation between humans and digital devices, significantly cutting back-office work and ensuring high quality, high productivity, uniform service, and saving time and cost. According to a Juniper Research study (2018), businesses and consumers are expected to save a total of 2.5 billion hours through the use of chatbots by 2023.

Professor Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT created the first chatbot, Eliza, in the 1960s (MIT News, 2008). Eliza was capable of mimicking human communication by using pattern matching and replacement methods. Leading IT firms have since created extremely intelligent, tailor-made RPA chatbots that are both cost-effective and practically useful – Alexa from Amazon, Cortana from Microsoft, Watson from IBM, and DialogFlow from Google are examples. 

Primary customer service channel

Banks use RPA technology with chatbots for various functions, including automated payment, loan processing, managing account services, and customer satisfaction analysis.  The technology enables banks to reduce manual effort, improve regulatory compliance, limit risk, offer multiple services simultaneously, and provide a smooth customer experience – without having to extend their infrastructure.

Bank of America, HSBC, Mastercard, Citibank and HDFC are among those facilitating products and services via RPA-driven chatbots which, according to Gartner (2022), will be the primary customer service channel for about 25% of organisations by 2027. 

Types of RPA chatbots

While RPA chatbots provide real-time responses to user requests, technologists divide them into functional categories. Let’s take a look at them:

Informational chatbot: This provides information in response to a user’s queries, providing answers to frequently asked questions and providing real-time support to users.

Personalised chatbot: These give responses tailored on the basis of users’ personal data. You can, for example, customise your devices to manage electronic appliances, open and close doors, and receive reminders.

Conversational chatbot: These chatbots communicate or resolve queries in a particular environment and language. E-commerce chatbots, for example, might recommend better options, update you on product availability, or provide a virtual trial.

Transactional chatbot: Many financial institutions use these to open accounts, provide credit and debit card services, account management, and loan processing, among other functions.

Intelligent chatbot: This type of chatbot is used primarily to guide insightful decision-making in research and development, science, and e-learning environments.

Feedback chatbot: These chatbots are used for surveys, customer needs analysis, and customer experience evaluation, identifying areas for improvement and clarifying customer expectations.

Why do they always have feminine names?

You must have noticed that the majority of chatbots have feminine names. According to the late Professor Clifford Nass, who was associated with Stanford University, the human brain has a predilection for the female voice. He felt it was much easier to find a female voice that everyone liked than a male voice everyone liked (CNN Business, 2011).

From a psychological perspective, women may be regarded as more friendly, welcoming, socially acceptable, and persuasive … which makes feminine names preferable. You have likely also noticed that movies in which the negative effects of robotic technology are portrayed have predominantly male casts and aggression in their storylines – for instance, The Terminator and The Matrix – so masculine names are not an ideal first choice.

Compliance 

Notwithstanding the benefits of RPA chatbots, concerns remain over compliance with regulatory requirements. While legislation and compliance requirements may vary from country to country, if you are thinking about implementing one for your organisation, be aware that to protect both your organisation and your clients, you must, at minimum, provide:

• Data privacy policies and disclaimers, particularly those regarding industry-specific regulations;
• Protection against copyright infringement;
• Suitable protection against defamation, abuse or harassment through the service;

And make provision to allow clients to:

• Access their data, and to update or delete it at any point in time. It is their right.

The majority of the world’s leading banks have implemented RPA chatbots to facilitate transactions with their internal and external stakeholders, as they recognise them as a significant tool for enhancing both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

References

CNN Business. (2011,Oct 20). Why computer voices are mostly female | CNN Business

Gartner Inc. (2022, July 27). Gartner Predicts Chatbots Will Become a Primary Customer Service Channel Within Five Years

Juniper Research. (2018, July 3). Chatbots to Deliver $11bn in Annual Cost Savings for Retail, Banking & Healthcare Sectors by 2023. Chatbots to Deliver $11bn in Annual Cost Savings 

MIT News. (2008, March 12). Joseph Weizenbaum, professor emeritus of computer science, 85 | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology