The software companies MX and Personetics said Thursday they're collaborating on a product that will help banks, especially small ones, give customers more accurate insights into their own financial health.
The companies will be integrating MX's data-cleansing and data-classification capabilities with Personetics' artificial-intelligence-driven customer insights software. The joint offering, due out in the second quarter, will be delivered by MX either on-premise or through a software-as-a-service model. Consumers would receive “nudges” to help them manage their spending, increase savings, pay down debt and plan for the future.
As banks experiment with customer-facing chatbots and recommendation engines, they often come up against an unwelcome but time-honored truth: garbage in, garbage out. In other words, if the data being fed into the AI engine is inaccurate, the “insights” it generates will be wrong — maybe disastrously so.
“We’ve seen financial institutions struggle and send out ads and nudges that are not relevant, and send out marketing campaigns for auto loans, say, to people who already have an auto loan," said Ryan Caldwell, the chief executive of MX, which is based in Lehi, Utah. "Those things don't make sense.”
On the other hand, when a bank can have a true 360-degree view of a customer's financial life, including all the products they already have, “you can know what's a relevant ad, what's meaningful," he said. "If you're just blasting them with content, you're going to get burnout, and the end user is going to disengage. But if you can make meaningful suggestions on good products that you have, you can mix that with insights into their own finances, you can create an experience where they feel like they are consistently getting value, and you can create a deeper engagement.”
Jody Bhagat, president of the Americas market for Personetics, says a foundation of good data is critical.
“It enables banks to show consumers they really know them," he said. "You're helping consumers become more aware of financial needs and make better decisions. You build a foundation of trust by delivering useful insights, and it's not simply positioned as a marketing offer but a basis for advocacy."
The founders of MX say banks should use the data they have for their customers’ good, recommending the right products and services for them, even if they happen to be offered by a rival.
Advocacy, Caldwell said, can help banks navigate a world in which customers have more choices and switching banks is less expensive.
Historically this technology has only been available to the top 25 banks in each country, Caldwell said.
