Tighter security, enabled by voice detection and other software, could result in limitless financial services delivered through virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, said Doug Brown, senior vice president at FIS, a Florida based financial technology provider.
“We think it’s got a lot of potential. This is a rapidly expanding ecosystem,” Brown noted in a recent report.
As an example,
Liberty Mutual programmed a few tasks usually delivered by its insurance agents to Amazon’s Echo, the device that supports the virtual assistant Alexa. Alexa is the ilk of Siri, a virtual assistant developed by Apple for its devices that answers voice prompt queries.
Boston-based Liberty Mutual loaded the Echo with capabilities such as helping users find brokers in their area, getting a car insurance estimate, or finding pointers on how to keep their auto and home premiums to a minimum. Capital One also allowed clients to pay mortgage and car loans through the device earlier this year.
Alexa is also performing other finance-based services for its users, usually the preserve of bank tellers, such as checking account balances.
FIS is further tapping the technology by enabling similar capabilities for banks across the country through pilot programs.
Future services from virtual assistants could involve getting reminders for when the rent is due, warning against purchases that could result in an overdraft, or getting advise on how to minimize fees for certain financial services.
Brown said that as banks and insurance firms bet on users becoming more comfortable with voice activated assistants, branch closures may soon follow.
