AI: Conversational Assistants in Fintech

The mantra of UX has always been ease of use and intuitiveness. In the financial sector, characterized by increasingly complex processes, the conversational assistant stands out as the primary tool for guiding the use of process management applications, answering questions in natural language without the need for manuals or a Help Desk

INTRODUCTION

Artificial intelligence is driving a paradigm shift in the operational and management methods of financial institutions. In its role as a conversational assistant, AI serves as the main guide for back-office automation, supporting end users in efficiently utilizing management applications.

The low-code platform Appian is the ideal partner to harness the potential of conversational assistants: it offers plug-ins that use OpenAI technology to generate a chatbot. This chatbot can engage in private conversations, consult documentation related to the use of a specific application, and even access the web to integrate responses with the most recent information available online.

CHALLENGE

The client approached Technology Reply Financial Services to use Appian in order to:

  • create a conversational assistant to guide users in a ticketing application developed in Appian
  • the assistant should be able to access specific instructions on how to use the application, allowing it to answer the end user's questions without requiring them to consult the operational manual directly.

The tool natively offers plug-ins that meet the client's needs: a chatbot developed with OpenAI technology and a vector database to store operational instructions.

A vector database is an advanced data storage system that organizes data as vectors, designed to handle large volumes of information very quickly and efficiently. This type of database is particularly useful for AI applications because it allows for rapid and semantically meaningful retrieval and comparison of complex data. In practice, it enables the chatbot to answer user questions more accurately and relevantly, significantly improving the customer experience.

The challenge was therefore facilitated by the platform and the ready-to-use components made available to the developer.

SOLUTION

Appian offers ready-to-use plug-ins that Technology Reply Financial Services leveraged to create an advanced architecture, using a vector knowledge base (such as operational instructions, user manuals, internal and external regulations) and integrating it with the conversational assistant, which was then embedded into the user interfaces.

The conversational assistant can enrich dialogues by drawing from the client's specific information (vector DB) and from public information on the web (natively included in the LLM of the AI engine used). The result for the user is an overall agile and simplified experience, where the actions required to carry out application functions are precisely directed.