Tomer Guriel is the Co-Founder and CEO of ezbob – a propriatery Core Lending Platform enabling banks to migrate to digital services.
Think about this: Your clients enter a bank to open an account or apply for a loan. They are greeted by a banker who knows their history, understands their needs and communicates the process clearly, leaving them confident they are getting the best possible service and offer. Now, imagine they don’t need to step into a branch to have that same personalized experience—no matter where they are.
One of the most transformative elements of digital banking is the modernization of customer onboarding. Historically, onboarding has been a laborious, rule-based process, involving manual input and rigid pathways. Even with digital platforms, the process is often only partially automated—customers manually activate accounts online or through apps, resulting in a roughly 50% digital experience.
These workflows are often linear and lack the flexibility to adapt to unique customers’ needs, concerns or instant support requests, making the experience feel impersonal and cumbersome.
Capgemini’s 2024 World Retail Banking Report shows just how time-consuming and costly the process is. Their research found that onboarding teams spend more than half of their time on documentation and operational activities.
A mere 4% of new account applicants achieve same-day approval, with an added 34% experiencing a processing time of up to five days. The majority (44%) awaits approval for six to 10 days, leading to considerable financial losses due to inefficient use of employee time and customer attrition.
So, is it any wonder that 18% of applicants simply give up during the process?
With the rise of AI, however, this model is on the brink of transformation. Based on our company’s experience developing AI-driven lending solutions, I’ve seen how AI can make onboarding more personalized, interactive, efficient and 100% digital. Here is how to leverage AI to elevate your customers’ onboarding experience.
Take A Call Center Approach
By embedding a customer support approach into your onboarding via AI, you introduce a process that is more manageable and dynamic rather than respondent. Thanks to natural language processing and understanding, AI-powered onboarding takes the digital transformation into a new realm much like a call center 2.0 that keeps improving, reacting, tackling issues on the spot and predicting users’ concerns, for instant reaction.
Getting a loan, for instance, involves connecting to open banking or PSD2, and it’s not always an easy decision for users to make. With a virtual avatar available 24/7, customers can receive relevant information, tips and explanations throughout the process (e.g., how the information is used as “read-only” and how it is common to share this information) to increase their trust, eliminate issues and concerns and ease their way in the process, bringing it to higher levels of completion.
Unlike traditional systems that pull responses from a predefined database, AI uses machine learning to adapt its answers based on where the customer is in the process, and individual data. This system constantly learns and improves the more it is used.
Make It Personal
Adjust your AI avatar based on individual characteristics such as age, gender, language, accent and dialect. This level of personalization enhances the system’s conversational capabilities, making the interaction feel more authentic and human. Together with lifelike animations, it fosters comfort, a sense of security and trust, which are critical when asking for confidential information during the onboarding process.
When the avatar feels relatable, it builds greater confidence, especially in processes that might otherwise seem daunting or complicated for some users.
Include Voice Capabilities In Your Onboarding Process
Another side of AI onboarding is the full digitalization of services, with voice as one of the modalities where AI can bring the edge to banks. Utilizing voice commands in the onboarding process to open a bank account or apply for a loan is something customers already expect and are familiar with from other markets and processes.
Most onboarding processes today rely on web platforms or native apps, requiring users to read and input information manually. By incorporating voice capabilities, customers can simply “speak” with the system, creating a fully digital experience that eliminates the need for reading or typing. This makes the process more viable, accessible and convenient, no matter where they are.
Adding voice communication, together with the personalization of the avatar and the call center approach, can provide the sense of an actual human interaction and adds to the comfort that doesn’t fall far from calling the bank’s call center or physically coming to the branch.
Drive Efficiency While Reducing Costs
AI’s capabilities extend far beyond enhancing user experience. It’s also a powerful driver of operational efficiency. By harnessing a diverse range of financial indicators and nontraditional data, AI enables faster, more accurate risk assessments. Automated data extraction, compliance checks and fraud detection further improve accuracy while significantly cutting labor and operational costs, especially in the traditionally costly onboarding process. According to IBM’s analysis, AI onboarding solutions can reduce costs for banks by 30%-40%.
Key Steps For Successfully Implementing AI In Bank Onboarding
When selecting an AI platform for customer onboarding, banks should first identify their unique needs. Hosting an internal workshop with stakeholders from compliance, IT and customer service helps pinpoint pain points and set clear goals. Involving the platform’s developers in this process can also refine the specifications.
The chosen platform should integrate seamlessly with existing systems, offer customization options and scale with the bank’s growth. Transparency and explainability are key, as AI decisions must align with regulatory requirements and build customer trust. Ultimately, the right platform will enhance efficiency and ensure a smooth, compliant onboarding process.
Take Onboarding To The Next Level
By incorporating AI avatars, natural language processing and intelligent automation, financial institutions can streamline onboarding while creating personalized experiences that mimic human interaction. They can take this even further by adding a personalized visualization of an avatar to complete this wholesome human-like interaction.
It’s not just about cutting operational costs but taking the ultimate step toward digitalization and paving the way for a truly customer-centric future in banking. And the time is now.
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