AI Revolutionizes Banking: Transforming Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency

The next interaction with your bank could be a lot better thanks to AI

"Many C-level executives we talk to agree, the contact centre is their first line of customer engagement and should be seen as a revenue centre and not a cost centre." Asked about the future of customer experience in financial services, Simon says: "We see a place where financial institutions can seamlessly blend human intelligence and AI to provide personalised and proactive customer engagement. "AI will be a significant part of this, but maintaining a humanistic feel will separate true CX pioneers from the rest." Simon says four categories are defining the changing nature of customer experience. First is predictive engagement, with AI systems taking patterns and signals to anticipate and proactively address customer needs before they ask. Second is intent recognition, with agents and chatbots able to understand the context of queries, changing customer sentiment throughout the engagement and then being able to respond accordingly. Third is triage and routing, knowing how to efficiently route the call for faster resolution be that through automated channels like chatbots, and when to escalate it to a human for more specialised support. And finally, telemetry. "Rather than siloed interactions, you now get end-to-end visibility across channels. That gives institutions much more context at the individual level and at the broader system level," Simon says. Simon says the scale of change is already visible. "Pretty much every financial services institution is looking at customer interaction as a key use case for AI." He points to NAB as an example. The bank has re-platformed its contact centres to run on Amazon Connect, AWS's omnichannel cloud contact centre, supporting more than 4500 agents and handling 20 million customer voice interactions a year. The implementation has led to faster responses for customers and more time for agents to focus on complex, relationship-based tasks. NAB's journey has meant completely rethinking how customers interact with the bank. Ana Marinkovic, group executive personal banking at NAB, says the strategy starts with people. "AI is helping us redesign the customer experience from the ground up - like turning a busy intersection into a well-orchestrated roundabout. Every interaction becomes smoother, faster and more intuitive," says Marinkovic. She says NAB's personal banking strategy is about connection and care, with AI acting as the engine behind smarter digital experiences. "It's not just about automation - it's about connection, consistency and care." Marinkovic points to the bank's adoption of Amazon Connect in its contact centres. "By enabling automatic transcription of customer calls, Amazon Connect is freeing up our bankers to focus on what matters most - being fully present with our customers and delivering expert financial guidance," she says. "With less time spent on manual note-taking and admin, our bankers can truly listen, understand and respond." All calls are now transcribed so team leaders can identify coaching opportunities faster and provide more targeted feedback. "The result is more meaningful conversations, stronger relationships and a better experience for every customer - every time," she says. Voice and messaging channels have seen some of the most dramatic change. AI tools such as smart IVR routing and conversational analytics are likened by Marinkovic to "air traffic control - guiding customers to the right destination quickly and safely, while giving us a bird's-eye view of sentiment and intent". In messaging, generative AI is allowing the bank to decode customer intent with greater precision. "Features like personalised welcome experiences are making interactions feel less like transactions and more like conversations. It's all part of creating a seamless journey across every touchpoint," she says. Trust, however, remains paramount. "Trust and privacy aren't just buzzwords in banking - they're the foundation of every customer relationship. We're not using AI to replace human connection - we're using it to strengthen it," Marinkovic says. She adds that guardrails around data and clear governance are central. "Every AI deployment goes through rigorous checks to make sure it's safe, fair and aligned with our values. Customers trust you with their most personal information. That trust is fragile, and it's earned through clear consent, secure systems, and responsible use of data." The early results are clear. NAB has seen a lift in satisfaction, with tools such as Call Intent helping the bank understand customer needs more quickly. Features like Knowledge Assistant are reducing time spent on every call, giving bankers more space for meaningful conversations. "AI should be a partner, not a replacement," Marinkovic says. "The best tools make your people better at what they do - whether that's responding faster, personalising service or freeing up time." Other institutions are reporting similar gains. In the 12 months following the migration of its contact centre operations to Amazon Connect, Bendigo Bank saw a 20 per cent improvement in customer service efficiency, a 17 per cent lift in net promoter score, a 90 per cent drop in wait-time complaints and a 46 per cent reduction in internal transfers. The bank says the move to the cloud, part of its wider transformation agenda, was an important driver of these improvements, helping consolidate multiple legacy, on-premises contact centre applications into a single, cloud-based solution, which in turn enhanced agility, reliability, and operational efficiency. NIB, an ASX-listed health insurer with almost 2 million customers, has saved $22 million in costs by scaling its AI assistant Nibby, which now automates call summaries, chat responses and document workflows. By reducing the need for manual support, Nibby has lowered chat-based interaction support by 60 per cent and voice call support by 15 per cent. Simon believes the next phase will be AI agents executing tasks "end-to-end". "At the moment, most customer interactions still have a human in the loop, particularly when action is required. We are going to see agents take on more of the actual workload - refinancing, mortgages, simple issues resolution, disputed transactions, loan approvals, and more. Humans will supervise and manage trust, but the agent will deliver the outcome autonomously." This shift would mean faster, more seamless service for customers, with AI agents completing tasks in minutes rather than days. It also allows institutions to scale support to meet surges in demand seamlessly, like interest rate changes or end of the financial year documentation, while freeing human staff to focus on high-value work like providing complex advice. For financial services, the balance moves from humans doing the work to humans supervising trust, judgement and empathy. Marinkovic agrees the focus is shifting from automation to empowerment. "Start with your customers - always. Before diving into tools or tech, take the time to walk in their shoes. AI is a journey, not a destination, and the best journeys are guided by real outcomes," she says.

Banking's next evolution isn't about efficiency -- it's about delight: By Prashant Jajodia

The Current State of Banking Customer Experience Despite significant investments in customer experience over the past 10-15 years, banks still face a fundamental challenge: delivering truly engaging digital experiences. When we compare digital banking platforms to consumer favourites like Netflix, Uber, or Amazon, the gap becomes apparent. While banks have successfully reduced friction in everyday transactions and streamlined everyday tasks, their digital offerings often feel impersonal and lack the magnetic appeal of leading consumer platforms. Moments that genuinely delight are few and far between. This disconnect is compounded by the erosion of personal relationships. In the UK alone, bank and building society branches have declined by more than 60%. The human touchpoints that remain are often memorable for all the wrong reasons -- a stark contrast to the delightful experiences we might have during a well-planned holiday or seamless ride-sharing journey. Finally, whilst the emergence of Neobank's may not have delivered the competitive landscape predicted when they first hit the Digital Highstreet, we have seen a significant shift in Customer expectation which can be directly attributed to the features and capability of Digital-first offerings like Starling and Monzo. The AI Opportunity: Three Transformative Approaches Banks can leverage artificial intelligence to fundamentally reimagine customer experience across three key dimensions: 1. Accelerating Full-Service Digital Banking AI can dramatically speed up the development and enhancement of comprehensive mobile banking platforms. Assets like IBM's Digital Experience Builder demonstrate how banks can deliver "brilliant basics" -- core banking services that are not just functional, but genuinely intuitive and efficient. At Nationwide Building Society, we are using such AI assets to rapidly progress from a figma protype to production ready app in days what would have earlier taken weeks to design and build. By using AI in the development process itself, banks can build and iterate on their apps at unprecedented pace, ensuring they keep up with rapidly evolving customer expectations. 2. Creating Intelligent, Personalized Customer Journeys The next generation of banking apps will move beyond one size fits all user interfaces to provide truly personalized, AI-driven experiences. Consider how a simple task transforms when infused with intelligence: Traditional Approach: Monthly Statement Review * Customer manually reviews transactions * Patterns and anomalies go unnoticed * No actionable insights provided AI-Enhanced Experience: nudges, notifications and in app messages that are tailored to you that advise "You spent 12% more than last month. Largest increases in dining (+£80) and streaming (+£25). You also had a new charge: Apple Storage Pro (£9.99/mo)" At another UK bank, we are working to build this feature that allows customers to engage more intuitively with the spend data to create better financial outcomes. Drawing insights from multiple data sources (product holdings, channel behaviour, transactions, demographics, social media) across the enterprise becomes a key competitive advantage to being personable. Delivering on the moment that matters then becomes an equation of deducing "what to promote" and most crucially "when for maximum effect". This transformation turns passive data consumption into active financial awareness, helping customers understand their spending patterns and make informed decisions. 3. Embedding Intelligent Agents for proactive value-added service The most advanced evolution involves integrating AI agents that don't just respond to customer requests -- they anticipate needs and take initiative. These agents can identify opportunities and problems before customers even notice them: Proactive Dispute Management: Instead of customers discovering duplicate charges weeks later, the app might prompt: "Looks like this duplicate Uber charge wasn't refunded -- want me to dispute it?" Intelligent Savings Optimization: Rather than customers manually managing multiple accounts, the system could suggest: "You spent £150 less than budgeted on groceries -- shall I move that to your 'Holiday Fund'?". Thinking further into the future, and operating within security and data privacy guardrails, agentic AI could in the future act on behalf of customers to optimise in which account their savings is held, with the goal of maximising savings interest and minimising tax implications, even opening new accounts on your behalf. We are building an agentic banking asset and an architecture framework, that will enable embedding AI agents across the critical banking customer journeys as well as ensure banks can communicate and transact with external Agents operating on behalf of prospect customers. The Path Forward The banking industry stands at a pivotal moment. While digital transformation has solved many operational challenges, the next frontier is creating experiences that customers genuinely value and enjoy. AI offers the tools to make banking not just more efficient, but more human -- paradoxically using technology to restore the personal touch that physical branch closures have eroded. Banks that successfully implement these AI-driven approaches won't just improve customer satisfaction metrics; they'll create the kind of sticky, engaging experiences that turn routine banking into a valued part of customers' digital lives. The question isn't whether AI will transform banking customer experience, but how quickly banks will embrace this transformation to stay relevant in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.