5 takeaways from the 2018 Bank Customer Experience Summit

AI is hot, chief.

At least that was one of the key takeaways for me last week as I left Chicago after attending Networld Media Group's annual Bank Customer Experience Summit.

When we were constructing this year's agenda in late 2017, discussions about how AI would affect the banking industry were abundant in various trade publications and industry conferences. But it seemed as though some executives had a difficult time defining how AI would affect their operations.

That's not the case anymore.

One focus at the moment is how banks will use data extracted in AI initiatives. For example, how they can offer a better voice banking service based on data indicating how customers interact with Amazon Alexa, or in Bank of America's case, the proprietary system Erica.

It remains to be seen how this all plays out, but panelists at the summit gave us a glimpse of the future. Over the next week or so, Mobile Payments Today and ATM Marketplace will recap some of the key sessions from last week in Chicago.

We started our coverage last week with a recap of the opening keynote speech.

For now, here are five tidbits (in no particular order) from sessions I attended during the summit:

1. Suresh Ramamurthi, chairman and CTO, CBW Bank: "If you want to go into digital banking, [consumers] expect everything to happen at the speed of Google. The generation born after Google expects everything to happen right away." Ramamurthi said this during the opening keynote presentation at the summer. His presentation traced the history of CBW Bank from a tiny institution that catered to farmers in Weir, Kansas, to its current status as a fintech playground, thanks to what Ramamurthi describes as a banking marketplace. Fintech companies have developed APIs around CBW's platform to help the institution tackle digital banking initiatives despite infrastructure shortcomings.
   
2. Rachel Huber, analyst, Javelin Strategy & Research: "They are also the smartphone generation. For Gen Z, having a smartphone has always been a thing. The smartphone is how they start their day. It's really their focal point." Huber said this during the summit's Four:15 panel, a session comprised of four 15-minute presentations from industry analysts and executives. Huber focused her presentation on the difference between members of the millennial and Gen Z cohorts, the latter of which has a profound fondness for their smartphones. Huber urged attendees to focus on their mobile efforts because Gen Z is positioned to influence the future of financial services in a way millennials have not.
   
3. Kader Sakkaria, director of technology, business and portfolio management, BMO Harris Bank: "If you look back about 10 years, Apple helped to transform the behavior of the customer [with the first iPhone]. Consumers were then asking themselves, 'How can I get a product or service quickly into my hands?' It's been an interesting dynamic that affects the customer experience." Sakkaria said this during a panel about the role AI can play in the customer experiences banks create in the near to long-term future. He mentioned the iPhone launch as a set piece for the current customer experience and the way that banks today are investing in AI to improve their digital offerings.
   
4. Phil Leininger, general manager of omnichannel sales and service, USAA Bank: "We're focusing on the member and the humans that are driving the customer experience. We talk a lot about humanizing our services and humanizing the digital experience." Leininger said this during his Friday morning keynote speech. "USAA must rely on the digital channel because it lacks physical branches. Its customers are U.S. military members and their families. So, it's important there are human elements to USAA's digital experiences."
   
5. Ryan Tuttle, senior consumer finance analyst, Euromonitor International: "What can banking steal from other industries? Mobile hardware is saturated, but the software isn't there yet. Then you start looking at things in China, they are taking [virtual reality] and making a shopping experience out of it." Tuttle said this during a panel discussion about how banks will continue to adjust to a mobile-first world. He's right in that the smartphone's form factor and components haven't changed much over the years. To Tuttle's point, what kind of experiences can brands create to deliver customer satisfaction via apps?

Photo by Jon Cullen/Networld Media Group