Abaka debuted a conversational chatbot product for financial firms to integrate into their digital channels

• baka debuted a conversational chatbot product for financial firms to integrate into their digital channels, complementing its existing AI applications.
• The move will be especially useful for smaller players’ digital transformations.

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The off-the-shelf offering enables financial advisors, wealth managers, retail banks, insurers, and retirement providers to integrate an AI chatbot, Finextra reports. Launched in 2015, Abaka is a technology platform that provides AI solutions to financial firms of all sizes, and it has offices in the UK, France, Singapore, and the US.

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Abaka’s chatbot promises to boost financial firms’ client engagement and satisfaction, and complements its existing products.

• Financial firms are keen to use chatbots to improve customer interactions, but they face implementation challenges. Forty-nine percent of global consumers say that AI interactions in insurance and banking provide better security and privacy around personal data than humans can, per a global Capgemini survey. Chatbots are also available online 24/7, and customers can get questions answered without being subject to the wait times that often accompany phone lines. But deploying chatbots does come with challenges: It takes time to train an in-house chatbot so that it can adequately handle interactions with customers. By contrast, Abaka’s chatbot aims to offer personalized financial advice in less than a month from when it is integrated.
• The new product enhances Abaka’s value proposition, creating a one-stop shop for all AI needs. The conversational chatbot offering complements the platform’s existing AI applications. For example, a financial advisor could deploy the chatbot alongside Abaka’s personal finance management tool, so that it is able to deliver personalized insights to customers and help them manage budgets.

The product launch is also timely as the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating financial firms’ need to enhance their consumer-facing digital channels—a particularly tall hurdle for smaller players. Fifty-nine percent of US consumers are using more fintech apps than they were before the pandemic, per a Plaid survey, leading financial firms to accelerate their digital transformation: In June, 86% of banks and insurance companies said they plan to increase AI-related investment by 2025.

Abaka’s platform can help stakeholders rapidly deploy AI solutions. This will be especially valuable for smaller firms, such as community banks, that tend to have a shortage of AI talent and resources to dedicate to development compared with larger financial institutions.

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