Talkdesk®, Inc., a global AI-powered contact center leader for enterprises of all sizes, launched comprehensive research, the Talkdesk 2024 CX in Banking Report, providing industry-wide insight into banks’ and credit unions’ current and expected customer experience (CX) maturity, including their use of artificial intelligence (AI). 

Banks and credit unions that report progress in leveraging AI capabilities are more than twice as likely as their counterparts who haven’t made progress to believe their contact center is a meaningful contributor to their CX strategy (80% vs. 28%), and that they can consistently link CX metrics to return on investment (ROI) (63% vs. 21%).

However, while organizations’ integration of AI into the contact center emerged as a key driver of CX success, the research also uncovered AI usage gaps and adoption barriers that many CX professionals will need to overcome.

Worldwide Business Research USA (WBR) surveyed 200 senior executives, including 59 C-suite members, from financial services institutions on behalf of Talkdesk for this report. The respondents almost unanimously (98%) say CX has become more of a strategic priority at their organization over the past year, and 83% see CX as a leading driver of customer loyalty for their company. 

Accordingly, more than half of respondents (56%) expect their company to increase investment in CX technology by 10% or more over the next three years. Improving digital service with AI is the most often cited (59%) CX technology initiative by those who are increasing investment. The top planned AI investments include analyzing contact center data for actionable discoveries and insights (83%), optimizing chatbot or guided conversations (73%), and virtual customer assistants for self-service (66%).

Today, almost three-quarters (73%) of financial institutions surveyed can’t use AI to optimize chatbots or guided conversations, despite this being a convenient self-service option that many modern customers expect. When asked what is holding their organizations back from integrating AI more deeply, the biggest cited barrier was resistance to change (66%), followed by insufficient availability of talent to maintain it (63%).

Larger organizations are additionally concerned about lack of quality data (74%). Talkdesk has been a pioneer in contact center AI since 2018, recently announcing significant product updates that deepen the integration of generative AI (GenAI) within its flagship Talkdesk CX Cloud platform and Industry Experience Clouds. Financial services institutions can easily deploy, monitor, and fine-tune GenAI in the contact center with no coding experience, eliminate inaccurate and irresponsible AI use and subsequent brand risk, and create a powerful personalized experience for customers.

Supporting Quotes

Tiago Paiva, chief executive officer and founder of Talkdesk, said: “Banks and credit unions of all sizes are in fierce competition to establish new relationships and deepen those with existing clients. In the race to inch out ahead of the competition and thrive during tough times, financial organizations are right to view CX as a key component to success. But, that CX strategy must incorporate responsible, AI-driven digital capabilities alongside human support to optimize every step in the customer journey and personalize experiences, otherwise some banks and credit unions–particularly smaller ones–will quickly start to get left behind. I’m optimistic that financial services organizations will more deeply benefit from AI as contact center solutions evolve that can easily be deployed, monitored, and fine-tuned with no coding experience. All AI provides is upside.”