How UCU selected interface.ai as a partner

“From our evaluation, it is clear that interface.ai is far ahead of even the second best vendor operating in the Intelligent Virtual Assistant space.”

Project Background

Vision

In 2017, University Credit Union(UCU) developed a 5-year plan focused on evolving their long term business model. Considering they serve the university community, that is highly technologically savvy and geographically scattered, UCU had to elevate their offerings and member service efficiently by focusing on being a leader in the digital space. The 5-year plan reflected the same.

“Considering the tech-savvy university community is our target audience, we are focused on being a leader in the digital space.”

The Progress

Executing the 5 year plan, UCU evaluated their technology ecosystem and looked at technology investments that would help them achieve their goal with a renewed focus. With concerted efforts around this, UCU has been able to increase the portion of the business that originates online from 10% to over 40%. This has led to a strong growth in revenues, assets and membership in the past 3 years.

The Next Step

Even with an ever increasing portion of the business originating online and significant growth, there was scope for even greater growth and efficiencies to be had.

A significant portion of the applications that were started online, were never completed
There were several bottlenecks in the contact center operations, which, if rectified, could greatly improve service levels to members
There were several upsell and cross-sell opportunities to be explored

Technology Selection

The road to Artificial Intelligence & Intelligent Virtual Assistants

After extensive research and understanding of case studies of several Credit Unions incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI), the executives at UCU were convinced that AI, specifically, Intelligent Virtual Assistant, was the technology that would help them overcome the challenges they were facing.

Affordability

Considering the possibilities with a technology such as Intelligent Virtual Assistants, the UCU team were initially concerned about its affordability. On gaining knowledge of credit unions of similar sizes incorporating Intelligent Virtual Assistants and understanding how the technology could be implemented at a modular level, it became clear that it was affordable and had massive ROI generating potential.

“We were not sure of our ability to afford technology like AI and ML due to the narratives in the outside world. When it came to our knowledge that other Credit Unions with similar asset size ranges, were investing in AI, we were convinced to take a granular look. On going deeper, we understand that all financial institutions with more than $100M in assets can leverage different aspects AI with Intelligent Virtual Assistants.”

Creating significant competitive advantage for UCU

After extensive research and understanding of case studies of several Credit Unions incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI), the executives at UCU were convinced that AI was the technology that would help them overcome the challenges they were facing.

UCU Expects to

Reduce training time of support staff
Improve operational efficiency across the organization
Improve member response accuracy rates by up to 95% and greatly improve first call resolution rates
Offer personalized interaction experience for members
Continuously learn from member interactions and improve

On timing of sanctioning the project amid the coronavirus pandemic

“This project is part of our long term strategy and it made sense to advance considering the accelerated shift of members towards digital channels. The decision to invest has come after extensive evaluation and the technology is proven to deliver value. We believe that institutions that take action during tough times by adding significant value to their members & by serving them in creative ways will be poised for success in the long term.”

UCU will also be able to serve its membership base across the world in a fast and efficient manner. It will also enable them to maintain great relationships with partner universities that are highly tech savvy.

Vendor Selection & Evaluation

Vendor Identification

Researching industry publications
Reading AI implementation case studies in the Credit Union space
Speaking with other Credit Union decision makers in their network
Hands-on evaluation of Credit Union Intelligent Virtual Assistant implementations which acted as a proof of concept

Vendor Shortlisting & Evaluation Criteria

Pricing, key functionalities offered, and the technological roadmap of the partner were key factors in choosing a partner for this project

UCU evaluated vendors based on the following criteria

Pricing – An affordable solution
Functionality – A solution having a wide range of functionality that can add value to all aspects of the organization and to all members
Experience – Having deep domain knowledge and having several successful live implementations delivering impact
Vision – Having a long term vision, technology roadmap and insights into the possibilities with the technology

Pricing, key functionalities offered, and the technological roadmap of the partner were key factors in choosing a partner for this project

UCU & interface.ai

After an extensive vendor selection process, UCU chose interface.ai as its partner for Intelligent Virtual Assistant Technology

“From our evaluation, it is clear that interface.ai is far ahead of even the second best vendor operating in the Intelligent Virtual Assistant space.”

The major reasons for UCU choosing interface.ai are

Deep understanding of the credit union space
An industry leading offering focused on delivering value & ROI from day 1
Having the most successful AI implementations across Financial Institutions in North America
Out of the box solutions for all banking needs
A well defined long term vision and product roadmap
An offering that is affordable by all financial institutions

“interface.ai will enable UCU to offer premier experiences on all member facing channels while greatly improving efficiencies across the organization.”