Asseco launches voice support for online banking
The popularity of voice services will continue to grow. This forecast is confirmed by the latest research, according to which 20 per cent of information is searched by voice in Google via mobile devices, and by 2020 this share may increase to 50 per cent. The financial sector is also preparing for these changes. To meet its expectations, in the Asseco Innovation Hub incubator, Asseco Voice Banking, one of the first products on the Polish market enabling voice support for online banking, is being developed by the VivicLabs team, which was among the laureates of last year's CodePlay by Asseco hackathon.
Asseco Voice Banking is used to initiate basic operations in electronic banking by voice, such as checking the account balance, transaction history, information about the nearest ATM, and also making transfers. The product is based on the Google Assistant solution. At the same time, what is very important, it uses self-learning mechanisms allowing for a better understanding of the user's intentions. Instead of using advanced search filters, it can, for example, ask how much home maintenance will cost, and artificial intelligence will analyze the relevant data and present comprehensible information. An interesting fact is the ability to communicate in three different styles: standard, formal and colloquial. All this is done in order to adjust to the client's preferences as best as possible. Asseco Voice Banking operates in Polish and English, but thanks to Google Assistant it can work in over 25 other languages supported by the assistant.
The voice service is the future. I think that increasingly more tasks will be performed with the use of voice communication. The development of banking system user interfaces as a more user-friendly and convenient form of access to banking services will certainly be heading in this direction. This is one of the reasons why Asseco Voice Banking, one of the first two commercial products developed as part of the Asseco Innovation Hub program, has been developed. It is a place which gives young people a chance to implement their own ideas and thus create innovative products, such as Asseco Voice Banking, which are used in business, said Jarosław Bryl, Managing Director of Asseco Innovation Hub.
We have decided to develop Asseco Voice Banking because we are aware that there is no more natural form of communication than voice. It is much faster to say something than write, and also, the problem related to learning how to use a given interface disappears. Simple operations are performed in a much more convenient way. I think that Asseco Voice Banking can encourage to online banking all those who have been afraid that they will not be able to handle such service or have had difficulties with handling their online account. And if we add to this the fact that it is a highly mobile solution, users will certainly be encouraged to test it in practice, said Tomasz Buczak, director of the Asseco Innovation Hub division.
The VivicLabs team has successfully completed the first stage of the project - the incubation of the solution, which aimed to provide MVP (Minimum Viable Product). During the Show Me Day, it presented a system demo and received an invitation to the second stage - the acceleration, during which a ready-made commercial solution is being developed. The first production implementation in selected banks operating on Asseco's banking systems is planned for the fourth quarter of 2019.
To use Asseco Voice Banking, one can choose the default voice assistant in Android or download the Google Assistant application from AppStore. The next step is to confirm your identity and willingness to use the voice assistant by logging into the electronic banking system. From that moment, the user can request banking operations by voice, which can thus be performed on the phone and all devices equipped with native Google Assistant functionality.
The voice service offered by Asseco is fully secure. The execution of transactions with the use of Asseco Voice Banking requires confirmation of this form of communication with a bank by a special PIN code at the very beginning of the process. The code is sent as a push message to the client's phone. At a later stage, each banking transaction order is executed with the use of a mobile application for transfers authorization, such as mToken Asseco MAA.
Asseco Voice Banking can be integrated with any type of internet banking offered by banks. At present, this functionality is available via Asseco Customer Banking Platform, but the solution can be integrated with any e-banking system.
Ultimately, Asseco Voice Banking will be used not only in banking, but also in systems outside this sector, for example in those designed tohandle stock market investments or book visits to medical facilities.
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Asseco Poland is the largest Polish IT company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and the sixth-largest producer of software in Europe. It leads international Asseco Group, which operates in 54 countries and employs over 24,000 people. The development of software for banks is one of the key business areas of Asseco Poland, which offers solutions which meet the latest trends in global banking. Currently over 800 banks use our core banking system.