NDS Cognitive Labs deploys a gen AI virtual assistant to promote financial inclusion and customer engagement
Mexico currently faces significant challenges in achieving financial inclusion, and many small and medium businesses remain unbanked. However, the rise of digital technology, including generative AI (gen AI), offers a promising solution. While 35 million Mexican adults (38%) do not have a bank account, they do own a mobile phone—indicating potential for financial inclusion through mobile banking and digitalization. Moreover, conversational AI solutions have proven to be a pivotal differentiator for Mexican financial institutions, as companies with an online presence and customer engagement and feedback have shown.
Clip is a fast-growing Mexican fintech unicorn that is helping advance financial inclusion by enabling hundreds of thousands of businesses to accept digital payments. It serves a wide variety of customers, from small businesses to independent professionals, many of whom have not used financial services and technology before. This can lead to recurring questions about fees, account setup, remote payment options, credit lines and other banking concepts that may be new to them.
Having to serve thousands of new users every month—without using banking infrastructure—Clip faced a challenge: How to best support and advise customers to use their new financial services?
In 2021, NDS Cognitive Labs used its expertise to customize and deploy a modern AI virtual assistant platform tailored to the specific needs of Clip. This effort aligned with the fintech’s mission to expand financial inclusion across various industries and reach a broader audience. NDS Cognitive Lab addressed Clip’s unique requirements by adapting the AI platform to enhance engagement and operational efficiency, supporting their strategic objectives.
NDS Cognitive Labs used IBM watsonx™ natural language processing (NLP), integrated with NeuralSeek and powered by the IBM Cloud® platform, to develop an advanced conversational gen AI solution that leverages the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technique. This chatbot can accurately identify user needs and retrieve pertinent, real-time information from external databases, demonstrating the relevance and depth of its responses. By combining almost instant data retrieval with generative language capabilities, the virtual assistant provides highly accurate and contextually rich solutions to a broad range of inquiries—commissions, remote payment options, credit lines and more—significantly improving both the quality and precision of its interactions.
One of the key features of this innovative solution is its seamless integration with Salesforce Cloud, enabling the chatbot to use data stored within the CRM platform for enhanced functionality. This integration allows the AI assistant to generate leads, create level 2 support cases, validate user identities and access other relevant information, thereby improving its performance and the overall user experience. Through NLP, the assistant can recognize when the customer refers to available products, and in case the customer is not specific enough, it can guide them through suggestions until the right answer is found.
The virtual assistant also offers an omnichannel service that frees up call center agents to concentrate on complex issues, optimizing resource allocation. It can handle more than 6,000 simultaneous interactions, providing immediate and personalized responses around the clock.
Furthermore, the chatbot seamlessly integrates with websites, social media platforms, WhatsApp and other digital channels, creating a unified and efficient customer experience.
The results highlight the transformative power of virtual assistants in driving financial inclusion. The chatbot created by NDS Cognitive Labs and customized for Clip’s specific requirements resolves over 66% of inquiries autonomously by using RAG. This translates to an 80% faster average interaction time when compared to traditional call centers, leading to significant improvements in operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, Clip has witnessed a 28% annual increase in chatbot usage, demonstrating a shift towards digital service adoption and higher customer engagement.
“AI technology has proven to be a very important tool for companies to better understand customers and their needs. IBM watsonx offers clients a way to make brand experiences easier, faster, friendlier, more useful and personalized, while improving the customer experience. By scaling AI and leveraging the cloud as an accelerator, organizations can perform vital operations for their businesses, such as predicting operational disruptions and ensuring business continuity; optimize time; intelligently automate decisions, processes and experiences; innovate in products or services; and like Clip, strengthen the customer experience,” said Carlos Camilión, Technology Leader at IBM Mexico.
By leveraging its consulting capabilities to identify specific needs and processes, NDS Cognitive Labs ensures its solutions are aligned with client objectives. Through the deployment of readily available and personalized support, NDS Cognitive Labs empowers a new generation of Mexican entrepreneurs and individuals to overcome barriers and confidently engage with the financial system.
“The past years have been full of historic opportunities for NDS Cognitive Labs to bring AI, cloud and generative AI solutions to new industry sectors, from retail to banking to hospitality,” said Gustavo Parés, Cofounder and CEO of NDS Cognitive Labs. “I am incredibly proud of the technical and consulting contributions NDS has delivered amidst record demand for our services. We’re grateful for the hardworking and talented professionals who make up our team, as well as our partners like IBM and customers like Clip, as we continue to leverage cutting-edge technologies to build a better technological future.”
NDS Cognitive Labs accelerates technology growth and innovation through its proprietary community of technology professionals trained in global standards, forming one of Latin America's largest technical talent pools. The company specializes in delivering cloud-based solutions for global finance and other industries. It also leads advancements in gen AI and cutting-edge consulting capabilities, driving real digital transformation for its clients. By integrating gen AI into its offerings, NDS Cognitive Labs provides tailored solutions to address complex business needs such as conversational AI and automation.
Colocated in Mexico and the United States and serving clients across North America, South America, Europe and India, the company combines decades of expertise, continuous education and advanced training in emerging technologies. Through close collaboration with leading global technology companies, NDS Cognitive Labs fosters essential innovation, delivering impactful results and a collaborative team experience.
Clip (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a leading Mexican fintech company specializing in digital payments and commerce platforms, enabling businesses across the country to accept digital payments through innovative technology. The company aims to promote financial inclusion by providing easy access to digital transactions for all types of businesses, of every size in any industry businesses, and it is considered Mexico's first "payments unicorn" due to its significant market share and high valuation.
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