Businesses from all sectors are leveraging technology to improve the delivery of services to consumers, but companies in the banking and finance sector are more progressive than others. Banks and other financial institutions were able to reduce friction between their consumers and employees by integrating AI-enabled processes into their back-office and customer support services.

Naturally, business transactions in other sectors are expected to follow suit. The process should be smooth, precise, and expeditious. A single search should dig up records of all transactions relevant to you in mere seconds. Such swiftness and accuracy can only be achieved through AI or artificial intelligence.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business processes is now everywhere. It’s nothing new; it’s been in existence for many decades. But its capacity to mimic human intelligence and learn from humans is more sophisticated than before.

Today, interactions between humans and AI are commonplace because of Siri and Alexa. Smart devices that are controlled by AI are activated by voice commands. They can play any song or call someone on our contact list, and a GPS helps us in mapping out our trips to new, unfamiliar places.

With the use of AI at work, repetitive jobs that are tedious for some people are handled well through complex automation processes. If programmed properly, AI-enabled processes result in a low error rate. Aside from that, AI’s don’t get tired or get bored, and they don’t need sleep or be entertained to fully function at work.

The Advantage of Human-AI KYC Checks

You might think, “AI is so great! Why do we need human employees in our business?” The answer is that while AI can do the work faster and more accurately, a human being is better at providing emotional labor and in teaching AI how to satisfy what the consumer needs. And just like that, we can conclude that, despite the vast capability of AI, we still need humans to add a personal touch.

Manually performed KYC checks, while done well, may take longer, and that frustrates consumers. With advanced technology, there exist systems with AI integration to provide services to consumers without delay. Either method has its weaknesses. However, a combination of these works better because smart technology can fill in the gaps in our capabilities as human beings. At the same time, humans fill in the empty spaces in an artificially intelligent system’s understanding of the human psyche.

AI-Human Integration Enhances User Experience

Al allows businesses to provide faster and convenient services to customers. A combination of human-AI KYC checks will provide a fantastic user experience throughout the whole customer journey.

First, AI determines what the customer initially needs. A form is filled out or a set of questions is answered. Based on the consumer’s questions, an overview of the problem is generated and shared with human agents. This reduces friction at first contact and prepares the customer for an in-depth interview with a human agent.

The purpose of initiating a conversation between the agent and customer is to uncover the factors that contributed to the problem. For example, a customer calls to complain that a shipment was delivered late and contained several damaged items. The customer’s initial reaction is to blame the retailer for sending already damaged items and failing to keep track of the shipment’s delivery date and time.

However, fulfillment services were provided by a third-party logistics provider who’s responsible for the shipping and delivery. This information helps both the retailer and consumer in resolving the issue. Items are then immediately replaced by a dropshipper located in the same city as the customer and a guarantee to deliver the items within 24 hours is provided.

All these decisions can be made with little risk to the online retailer because with an AI-enabled eCommerce software, a directory of dropshippers and fulfillment providers can be shared with agents, who are empowered to use them to resolve shipping and delivery issues.

AI can be trusted to keep millions of data points, not just in inventory and directory management but also for managing multiple transactions happening or that have happened between the retailer and its suppliers and business partners and also its customers.

When done well, human interaction in AI-enabled customer service guarantees that a personal experience with your brand is enhanced.

Security and Reliability

Financial institutions implement the integration of artificial intelligence to detect and combat illegal financial activities and to improve the process for anti-money laundering and KYC regulatory checks.

There will be cases such as a person pretending to be someone else or someone sending a fake document. While AI can detect any tampering of personal information on the documents submitted, a live video verification or a personal verification on-site is added for a tightly secure process.

This weakness in a traditional KYC check is shown quite blatantly in several scenes in the movie “Hustlers” where Jennifer Lopez and her gang of strippers were able to pass the identity verification checks done by credit card companies. They got the credit card owner’s personal information by drugging him and asking him standard questions, such as what his wife’s name was, his home address, the name of his dog, etc.

But, if there was live video verification, then the credit card company would have immediately known they’re not authorized to use the card. Now, imagine adding biometric data, such as fingerprint scans and voice or eye recognition. These would have added another layer of security that would be too difficult or too expensive for identity thieves to simulate.