Kenya’s Equity bank has introduced its Equity Virtual Assistant (EVA), an AI-powered chat banking platform on social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram.
EVA chatbot offers digital banking and customer support services to existing and new customers and can imitate a chat with a user.
On the platform, clients can oversee their accounts on EVA and engage with the virtual assistant to make transactions like buying airtime, sending money, buying goods and services, paying bills, viewing account balances, and getting a statement anytime anywhere within their social media platform of choice.
James Mwangi, the company Managing Director-cum-CEO, said the bank will keep investing in technology and products that are designed to give our customers more freedom of choice, ease of access, convenience, and control. He was during the release of Q1 2022 results.
“We are more than a bank, we are an enabler of lifestyle, fulfilling the needs and aspirations of our customers and communities. The launch of Equity Virtual Assistant, EVA, is in line with our journey to make our services and products available virtually and online,” Dr Mwangi said.
EVA will bank on Artificial Intelligence, to constantly evolve and learn from the interactions it has with customers to provide responses.
“We endeavor to deliver financial services to our customers wherever they are and at whatever time in a secure, convenient and flexible way,” the CEO added.
The new Equity Virtual Assistant seeks to improve customer experience and streamline banking processes.
This adds to the innovations that have continued to drive Equity’s business transformation enabling it to transition from fixed cost to third party variable channels and self-service platforms.
In the first quarter of 2022, the bank’s transactions on mobile, internet, and third-party channels rose to 97.1 percent as compared to only 2.9 percent of transactions happening in physical branches and ATM outlets over the same period last year