Brazilian bank Bradesco reaches new AI high

Brazilian bank Bradesco has reached 100 million interactions through its artificial intelligence platform and aims revenue generation through the channel in 2019.

Bradesco is the second-largest private bank in Brazil, with over 71 million customers. It has seen a four-fold increase in the number of users of its AI service during the year starting February 2018, with about 14 million customers currently using it.

About 75 percent of the interactions processed through the platform, dubbed Bradesco Inteligência Artificial (BIA) have taken place over the last 12 months. The service launched in 2016 can answer text, chat or voice-based questions about products and services via the bank's app or WhatsApp and Google Assistant.

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According to Bradesco, BIA is already a core part of any customer interaction with the bank and in 2019, the idea is that it will start generating more business, with complex operations such as loans and investments being carried out through the platform.

BIA was one of the first Watson-based projects in Brazil. The bank now wants the platform to become more agnostic in terms of technology and will be intensifying use of other voice assistant technology such as Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana.

Three out of five banks in Latin America are investing in digital projects, according to a report by digital banking firm Technisys in partnership with Stanford Business School.

According to the research, over 60 percent of Latin American banks are implementing or testing technologies such as chatbots, but only 47 percent of banks across the region clients obtain the maximum of banking services through digital channels.