I lead Revenue Operations for Alkami. In this role, I see dozens of demos of the latest and greatest tools and technologies meant to help Sales and Marketing teams deliver better experiences to customers and prospects alike. As you can imagine, every single demo now incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) in at least 19 slides and is mentioned 34 times by every solution consultant providing the demo. It’s ridiculous. But it’s also pretty cool.
Sometimes, the AI they show gives the “WOW” factor. For example, some of the summarization and action items recorded and placed into Salesforce by call recording solutions save time, increase productivity, and offer a better experience to all those using the tool – love it! Also, yes, I can still use an em dash and not have this be written by ChatGPT.
Other times the “AI” is either
For example, when using a Content Management System and a user types “customer deck” into the search bar, and then the results provide you with documents where the words “customer deck” appears is not AI! This type of functionality has been around for years. It is called full-text search (and yes, ChatGPT did help me find the proper name of this technology. See, there are use-cases).
“Unlike traditional search methods that rely on exact word or phrase matches, a full-text search refers to a search of all of the documents’ contents within the full-text queries’ range(s) that are relevant. This includes topic, phrasing, citation, or additional text attributes.”The definition of full-text search according to MongoDB:
One example of an AI covering up for an unintuitive user interface (UI) is often chatbots that just redirect you to a page. You know, the bot with three options to click, each leading you to a different web page you could’ve found on your own, but each equally unhelpful? Yeah, those kinds of AIs.
Next, let’s take a digital banking example. Imagine having an interface where a user comes into the online banking platform and types into a search box “What is my balance?” and receives an answer right there. Sounds cool and demos awesome! What a wow moment! Except, if your balance is that hard to find, your user interface (UI) has some major issues.
Another example could be, imagine an account holder comes in and types into the search box “send $50 to Jane Doe through Zelle” sounds cool, right! I mean, imagine after typing that, the user is brought right to the money movement screen, Jane is selected, $50 is input as the dollar amount, and all the user has to do is press SEND. Wicked, right? Wrong. To type out that request, the user had to tap 30 times on their phone with their little thumbs. Isn’t it easier to navigate to the “Send Money” button, select a user, put in the dollar amount and press send in under 10 taps? I think so.
Finally, let’s talk about unnecessary AI. Did you know you could purchase an AI-powered toothbrush for $300 (seriously). I’m going to repeat that for dramatic effect. You can purchase an AI-powered toothbrush for $300. 🤯
So we get it, sometimes AI is helpful, like with those handy transcription summaries from call recordings.
Other times AI is blatantly not AI. Sometimes it is covering up for a poor UX. And still other times it is just unwarranted.
What moves the needle the most? Is it a new AI interface where an account holder could type in their password and the AI guesses the name of their pet? 🐶 Or maybe an AI that can predict a user’s name based on what the barista yells out at Starbucks? ☕ Perhaps not.
Jokes aside, what’s Alkami actually doing about AI? We’re leveraging AI to offer the perfect product or service to your customers and members based on anything they’ve purchased, or done anywhere that incorporates moving money! 💸
You see, we’re using AI to actually help your account holders and your financial institution accomplish more, in less time. We’re using AI to be the digital sales and service platform you need.
Over the last fifteen years, our Data & Marketing Product team has developed 50,000 descriptive behavioral data tags and a dozen predictive AI models, built to improve personalized targeting and cross-selling. Think of these predictive AI models as a way to anticipate life moments, like buying a car, starting a family, or needing a home equity line, and proactively offering helpful solutions.
As Alkami’s Chief Executive Officer, Alex Shootman said, “Alkami’s customers will usher in the next wave of innovation in the industry—Anticipatory Banking—moving beyond personalization to anticipate the needs of their account holders.”
That’s the platform we’re building, one that combines sales and service to deliver exceptional digital banking experiences catered to each individual user.
