Every month, approximately 45 million Alice users will be able to talk and get financial advice with a virtual banking assistant. In 2022, the bank plans to launch a branded voice in the VTB Online mobile app.

Not only bank customers, but all users can communicate with the VTB voice assistant in Yandex services. To activate the assistant, just say, “Alice, start the VTB Assistant skill.” This can be done from the Yandex app on a smartphone or in the Yandex.Station smart column.

The user can ask the assistant any question regarding VTB products and services. The virtual assistant will tell you the current conditions for mortgages and other loans, tell you about the accrual of bonuses on the card, and list deposits or savings accounts on which you can get the maximum income. A consultation with a VTB virtual assistant through Alice is confidential; the client's personal data is not requested when using the assistant.

The voice of the VTB assistant will be familiar to many users—it is synthesized based on the voice of Vladimir Zaitsev, the Russian actor who voiced Robert Downey Jr.'s character in dubs of the Iron Man and Avengers films. The assistant's voice was created in the VTB Assistant skill using the SpeechKit Brand Voice technology. Yandex.Cloud specialists used dozens of hours of recordings to train the ML model. To improve the quality of customer service and develop new dialogue scenarios, the model will be regularly additionally trained.

“The function of VTB's financial assistant appeared in Alice last September, and now it has received a unique voice. This is the first example of such a collaboration on the Russian market, and we are happy to implement it together with partners from Yandex, confirming our status as one of the leading digital players in the banking industry. More than 45 million people use Alice every month, and now they will be able to communicate with VTB's virtual assistant, which will have its own individual image. We want VTB's voice assistant to become a recognizable and indispensable assistant in the financial sector. In the future, we plan to use the new voice in the VTB Online mobile application, as well as integrate it into other digital platforms,” comments Nikita Chugunov, Head of the Digital Business Department, VTB Senior Vice President.

“The VTB case with the integration of a unique voice into Alice’s skill is a good example of strengthening digital communications with customers using speech technologies. Yandex SpeechKit Brand Voice allows companies to find new scenarios for interacting with users, to solve not only technological, but also marketing business problems,” comments Alexey Bashkeev, head of the Yandex.Cloud platform.

VTB Voice Assistant appeared in the VTB Online app in February 2021. During the first year of the virtual assistant's operation, the percentage of automation reached 53%—that is, the voice assistant processes more than half of the customer requests on its own, without the involvement of an operator. More than 400,000 customers have used the service, and the total amount of payments and transfers made with its help exceeded 40 million rubles.