For retail banks looking to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded marketplace, providing an enhanced digital customer experience is now an essential component of winning and retaining customers. The sector is increasingly looking to artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve this and is now on the cusp of a digital services revolution, with machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics all set to turn retail banking into a data-driven industry.How retail banks and financial providers can use the latest digital technologies to transform customer relationships are among the many themes covered at this year’s Money20/20 USA event, the world’s largest marketplace for ideas, connections and deals in Payments and Financial Services.Daoud Fakhri, Principal Analyst for Retail Banking at GlobalData, commented: ‘‘We are partnering with Money20/20 at this year’s event as we too have a good deal of insight and information about the increasing importance of mobile and AI in the sector.’’ The events AI Deep Dive session will explore the latest advances in this fast-evolving field and discuss how financial providers are using the technology. Other sessions will assess what impact chatbots, virtual assistants, and other AI-dependent services will have on banking.GlobalData’s 2017 Retail Banking Insight Survey supports the premise that mobile will be the main channel through which consumers will access AI-enabled services. The survey revealed that 39% of global consumers now engage with this channel at least once a week, with most markets, particularly the Nordics and developing countries, seeing usage increasing over the last 12 months.

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Fakhri, confirmed: “The popularity of mobile banking offers the sector a great opportunity to engage with their customers. With consumers effectively carrying their banks in their pockets all day, providers can target alerts, advice, and recommendations exactly when and where they’re needed.”

AI will also help banks offer personalized service, foremost via mobile channels, to an increasingly fragmented and individualized customer base.

Fakhri adds: “Consumers, particularly younger ones, often lack confidence when managing their finances. This means there is plenty of scope for AI-based services that can act as a guiding hand or even make simple decisions without user intervention.”

Virtual assistants will harness technologies such as machine learning and predictive analytics to gain a deep understanding of users’ financial behaviours, anticipate their needs, and offer fully informed recommendations.

Fakhri concludes: “Banks are sitting on mountains of unused customer data. Virtual assistants can mine this data to extract high quality insight that can help consumers save more, cut unnecessary spending, and make better use of their money.”

For more information about the event which takes place October 22-25, 2017 and this year’s AI-related sessions, visit Money20/20