By John San Filippo
Referring to the Avatar movie franchise, Eltropy founder and CEO Ashish Garg asked the audience at his GAC 2023 session, “Do these avatars creep you out? Maybe a little bit? Why are they so creepy? Because they almost look like humans and they almost talk like humans.”
Garg then proceeded to introduce Kaitlin, a truly lifelike avatar on the session’s presentation screen that he referred to as a “humanized AI (artificial intelligence) bot.” For the next few minutes, he interacted with Kaitlin in much the same way one might interact with a live agent on video chat or a teller in the branch. He conducted several inquiries and transactions by conversing with Kaitlin in a natural manner, but not before she authenticated him using voice biometrics.
To add some humor to the session, Garg concluded by asking Kaitlin if he could have her phone number, to which she replied, “Of course. I am going to text it to your wife now.”
Finopotamus caught up with Garg after the session to explore this technology in greater detail.
“This is something brand new; this has never been done before,” Garg assured Finopotamus. “We believe that credit unions are very unique in the way they serve their members and a lot of that comes from these conversations they have with their members either in the branch or on the phone.” He added that the purpose behind Eltropy’s humanized AI platform is to allow credit unions to have those conversations with members even when no live agent is available.
According to Garg, humanized AI technology can help credit unions extend service hours to a true 24/7/365 model. “Credit unions always have employees ready to answer questions nine to five,” explained Garg. “But let's say somebody has a question after 5 p.m., even into the night. Members are often sent into voicemail. Where I see these bots playing a big role is helping serve credit union members and enabling them to have those conversations during non-office hours, in the evenings or on weekends.”
Garg added that Eltropy’s humanized AI technology can also be used for first-level member support. “AI bots like Kaitlin can also ‘sit’ in the contact center. When a call comes in, they can do the first level of help, like pulling account balances or scheduling appointments,” noted Garg. He added that the same technology is used in both video and audio-only settings, the only difference being the lifelike avatar in the video setting.
As innovative as this technology is, Garg admitted to Finopotamus that there are many companies that are trying to solve different pieces of the same problem: humanizing the digital member experience. He explained that this will inevitably lead to industry consolidation.
“There are lots of small companies trying to solve different parts of the problem,” said Garg. “What that is doing for credit unions is now suddenly you have eight or 10 different systems, each trying to do something a little different. So, I think where we are headed is a consolidation in the market.” He pointed out that Eltropy has already completed two acquisitions of its own and he expects to do more. The key challenge is blending acquired products into one seamless solution that makes sense to credit unions.
“We will do all the stitching and remove all the overlap among the different products,” noted Garg. “What happens is something brand new comes up and there will be another fintech doing that. The way to connect our platform to any fintech is through APIs (application programming interfaces). APIs make building those connections very straightforward.”