Voice Banking in India: Next Generation Banking

Ashish M. Shaji

24 Aug, 2020

With the advancement of technology, banks have adopted the use of these technologies to provide a great customer experience. From queuing up in the banks to accessing banks from the comfort of your homes, banking services have evolved and transformed greatly. In this article, we shall discuss one of those banking services, i.e., Voice Banking.

What is Voice Banking?

Voice banking provides a way for customers to access banking services through their words or voice commands. For instance, if any customer has any query, they can just say “what is my account balance” etc. and then the bank sends the information privately and securely through an SMS.

What has paved the way for voice-based banking services?

Artificial Intelligence and its applications have been evolving rapidly. It has revolutionized the delivery of services in a manner that many of us wouldn’t have imagined.  The advent of voice-driven Artificial Intelligence technology applications like Alexa has surprised many. These compact smart speakers can involve banking services within the paradigm of information and communication services that they provide.

To put it straightforwardly, it can be said that customer expectation and pressure have caused banks to move to the next level in AI-driven banking. However, it is not free of challenges like the use of customer personal data, etc.

In the banking sector, there has been an increased demand from consumers for VB, and many banks in India (ICICI Bank, United Bank of India, etc.) have already started with it and have also started implementing policies to facilitate its efficiency.

Banks in India offering Voice Banking (VB) services

Recently you would have heard the news regarding banks in India providing VB services to its customers. A few months ago, ICICI bank announced its integration of AI-powered multi-channel chatbot, iPal Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant to allow its retail banking customers to undertake a variety of banking services with just a voice command.

Last year United Bank of India also launched VB services. The executive director of the United Bank of India said that the VB services would give customers a new way of banking that they want their customers to experience. He further said that it would help them to understand customer behaviour better in adapting to new banking gadgets in the future.

Axis bank provides its customers with VB services through Amazon Alexa. It provides that customers can access multiple banking services like account balance, credit card bill, transaction history, order a cheque book, etc. using their voice.

Concerns with Voice Banking Implementation

As we find above a number of banks are transitioning to voice-based banking solutions, users may have to agree to the collection of personal data and usage trends, it brings Big Data concerns into place. It may eventually lead to erosion of user privacy as they sign up looking for convenience. Often times, these trade-offs are made without appropriate disclosure regarding how consumer data will be used or shared or even marketed without the free will of consumers.

Notwithstanding targeted marketing and privacy concerns, big data may also threaten fair competition in the Indian banking sector due to the way banks may use personal data.

Banks look set to embrace rapid changes in technology; however, they may not always be prepared or well equipped with the requisite technological prowess or sophisticated infrastructure to create intended customer experience under VB.

As the demand for moving to voice based banking increases, banks may resort to outsourcing the technological side of the system where they may not be experts. This may seem harmless, but obstacles to fair competition may be there in the form of data used by their tech partners and also used by themselves.

The Future of Voice Banking (VB)

The future of VB is making the customer experience more convenient. Rather than calling customer care executives and waiting for their queries to get resolved, customers will have access to relevant information by voice commands. The prospect of banking is ultimately improving the customer experience by providing the information to them when they desire.

The opportunity lies in integrating the transactional activities of bank branches with voice technology. Presently voice assistants handle customer queries regarding account balances, making payments, getting account-related information, etc. However, we may see them reimagining the customer journey across channels, products, and services in the future.

With the advancement of technology, more and more people would get used to conversing with digital assistants and VB would become a common method to handle financial transactions.   

Conclusion

Read our article:Voice Banking in India: Next Generation Banking