- AmBank Malaysia recently launched AMY, an AI-based virtual financial assistant for customer service.
- The virtual assistant was introduced on the 29th of October at a launch event for guests and media representatives.
AmBank has been focusing on going digital with their banking services, as have many in the banking industry in recent times. In addition to their online platform, AmOnline, the bank has just launched AMY, a virtual financial assistant for customer service.
Abbreviated from AmBank Malaysia, AMY is a virtual assistant that serves as an actual customer service agent—you can cancel credit cards, request for higher credit limits, or conduct a variety of tasks just by talking with the chatbot. The latest feature from AmBank is integrated into the AmOnline mobile banking app which is available on the App Store for iOS devices and Google Play for Android devices.
At the launch event on 29 October 2018, the AI-based virtual assistant was demo-ed in front of media and guests alike.
Stepping Forward Into The Future
AmBank Group Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Sulaiman spoke glowingly of the new virtual assistant: “The launch of AMY is indeed an important milestone for us as we continue our journey to revolutionise our customers’ banking experience.”
Referencing a well-known quote from Jeff Bezos, he told the crowd, “The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.”
While AMY currently only communicates in one language (English), there are further plans to bring more languages on board. The event demonstration included asking it for recommendations on suitability of credit cards based on food-preferences, spending patterns, and others.
Jade Lee, Managing Director of Retail Banking, explained, “When we designed the first release of AMY, we picked the most frequent reasons that credit card customers need service fulfilment from a human. Customers can expect to see AMY’s repertoire expand.”
Take credit card cancellations for an example. If you’re overseas and you’ve lost your card and you need to cancel it ASAP, you’d not want to sit around waiting for a human customer service representative to get to you; Amy can do it for you immediately.
Creating Something That’s Bigger
Moving forward, Dato’ Sulaiman also briefly hinted at the possibility of AmBank rolling out its own robo-advisor in 2019—this service could potentially use existing data to recommend investments based on their risk-profiling.
There are also plans to implement NLP (Natural Language Processing) into AMY; this will help the chatbot from a communication standpoint.
From AMY to the impending robo-advisor, to possibly a service that will recommend simple investment portfolios for customers, AmBank are aggressively trying to make an impression in the digital finance sphere.
According to Datuk Iswaraan Suppiah, AmBank Group Chief Operating Officer, “We are not just focused on how we can make everything that is available at a branch or contact centre also available online, we are interested in creating an order of magnitude improvement in the customers’ banking experience.”
Perhaps the most enticing part of all this is the claim that AMY will make it possible for customers to get things down in half the time or less. As for the future? AmBank believes that AMY will only get smarter with more releases.
Editor’s Notes: We’ve amended the piece since publication for accuracy and to correct typos.
- You can download the AmOnline app on the App Store or the Google Play Store.
