Citi Commercial Cards has teamed up with conversational AI firm Interactions to roll out an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) feature to its US call centres.
The IVA tool uses Interactions’ Adaptive Understanding technology, which provides a blend of AI and real-time human understanding.
With the support of humans, the IVA uses advanced conversational AI to understand languages, accents and dialects as well as to make sense of a customer’s word choice and the respective intent based on the context of the call.
This means, says Citi, that cardholders can speak in their own words and be understood without concern for background noise.
And, because the IVA uses predictive technology as part of its machine learning capabilities, the system will continue to learn and become more intuitive as it interacts with clients.
Although Citi has high hopes for the technology, the bank stresses that it is initially only being used for specific call types and that live agents will be on hand if cardholders prefer to speak to a human.
Karen Young, North American head, client operations, Citi Commercial Cards, says: "The ability to integrate natural language processing technology into our customer service offerings allows Citi to deliver a consistent, fast and still-personalized client experience.
"We know the importance of cardholders’ preference for rapid self-service. From our pilot, we’ve seen that the implementation of the intelligent virtual agent provides our clients with enhanced customer satisfaction."