Barclays Africa to trial bank chatbot

Cape Town - Barclays Africa Group's subsidiary Absa Bank announced that it would pilot a chatbot within the coming few weeks, claiming it is the first bank to do so in Africa.

Chatbots use artificial intelligence to simulate intelligent conversation through written or spoken text.

Yasaman Hadjibashi, chief data officer at Barclays Africa, explains: “By aligning our user-centric and big data expertise we are able to connect with our customers through channels that they are actively using.”

The fact that messaging apps continue to eclipse social media (as the conversational channel of choice in monthly active users) means that consumers are quickly adopting "smart" two-way messaging apps as opposed to traditional, and more limited options such as SMS or email.

According to Jan Moganwa, chief executive of personal & business customer solutions at Barclays Africa, artificial intelligence enabled chatbots can answer simple customer questions quickly, freeing up staff to focus on more complex customer issues that require deeper human insight.