Sweden’s financial industry is now emerging as a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Banks and financial services institutions in the country have introduced several tools using AI, especially for interaction with customers. The examples are Aida a virtual customer service representative at SEB, and Nova, which is a chatbot Nordea Bank. Similarly, Swedbank has a virtual assistant, Nina. All three are designed to sound like women, based on research suggesting customers feel more comfortable with female voices. Johan Torgeby, COE at SEB, says there are some frequent, simple tasks that banks need to deal with manually today, and in that effort the bank is considering AI to see how it can deploy it and Aida is one. Aida has access to vast amounts of individual client data and it can quickly handle straightforward customer requests. That in turn frees up human employees to deal with more complex services, like coming up with the best mortgage plan to suit a specific customer. Nordea’s chatbot will eventually help customers who want investment advice, who want to cancel lost credit cards or to open savings accounts. Research shows that AI tools like chatbots can bridge the gaps between what customers expect and what bakes provide at present.
