Regions Bank Partners with IBM to Help with AI

Regions Bank, a bank with over 1.5 million clients, has partnered with IBM in order to improve customer service and assist bankers in other tasks related to artificial intelligence.  Some data suggest that it only takes two bad experiences with customers for 62% of banking consumers to switch services.  

Banks continue to realize that compliance and fraud prevention are crucial focuses in terms of technology, but customer service is probably the most important day to day function for a bank particularly when it comes to online banking experience.   

“At Regions we are investing in technology to make banking easier for our customers and to recruit and retain talented associates,” said Chris Brasher, head of Bank Operations for Regions Bank. “IBM Watson’s automated intelligence is an important tool that allows us to operate more effectively by understanding customer needs. We are identifying additional use cases for this technology as part of our focus on continuous improvement across the company.”

Regions Bank is using Watson, IBM’s product, in its contact centers focused on customer services in order to provide answers faster through AI-powered search. The service is expanding, but IBM stated that Regions already had 700 of their professionals that were relying on Watson already.  

Letting Watson take on the more routine questions allows service representatives to tackle the more intellectually challenging questions, spend more time engaging with customers and be better informed to resolve issues. 

"The use of artificial intelligence among banks continues to rise, helping financial institutions make better use of vast amounts of data, analyze patterns, evaluate risks and improve customer service..." said Beth Smith, General Manager, IBM Watson AI.