And finally…RBS opts for artificial intelligence

Having already been piloted among 1,200 staff who manage relationships with small businesses, the still 73 per cent state-owned bank says that the AI, known as ‘Luvo’, is able to understand questions and then filter through huge amounts of information in a split second before talking through the answer with the member of staff via web chat.

If Luvo is unable to find the answer, it passes the query on to another member of staff who can solve more complex problems.

Typical questions Luvo answers with staff, through web chat include:

Whilst banks have been using artificial intelligence for some time, Luvo is unique in that a ‘human’ like personality has been created for it that makes it easy for people to interact with and seek help. Its unique psychological profile means it has a warmth to its personality, is approachable, creative and uses a combination of intuition and reasoning when answering questions.

A statement from RBS said: “Like humans, Luvo has to be trained when dealing with new subject matter, but crucially, and also like humans, it learns from its mistakes and its answers become more accurate over time. Where Luvo can’t answer the question, it refers staff to an expert in the bank to help resolve the query.”

In the months to come, RBS will be exploring if Luvo could be used to answer questions direct from customers – although this will only be considered after small, voluntary, customer pilots. This could reduce the need for people to wait for a human advisor to be free to answer a simple question and at the same time free up time for staff to answer more complex problems.

Simon McNamara, RBS chief administrative officer said: “Luvo is a really exciting new technology that brings artificial intelligence to life and will help our staff serve customers better by resolving their questions and problems much more quickly. Its potential is huge and we’ll be exploring if Luvo could talk to customers directly to answer straightforward questions, freeing up time for our staff to answer complex issues.”