Clients engage with the company's virtual
assistant 2 million times per day for help with everyday financial
needs, and the occasional joke
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 8,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 2 billion since 2018.
That's how many interactions Bank of America clients have had with
Erica®, the most advanced and first widely available virtual
financial assistant, since it launched. It took four years to reach
1 billion interactions, since which client engagement has surged,
reaching a second billion just 18 months later.
"Erica acts as both a personal concierge and mission control for
our clients," said Nikki Katz, Head
of Digital at Bank of America. "Erica meets clients where they are
and when they need us, and has become a true guide by their
side."
Over the last six years, Erica's capabilities have expanded to
support individual and corporate clients across the enterprise,
including within Merrill, Benefits OnLine®, and the award-winning
CashPro® platform.
"Erica is a great example of applied innovation in language
processing and predictive analytics to deliver a valuable and
empowering client experience," shared Hari
Gopalkrishnan, CIO and Consumer, Business & Wealth
Management Technology executive at Bank of America.
To date, Erica has responded to 800 million inquiries from over
42 million clients and provided personalized insights and guidance
over 1.2 billion times. For example:
- Out of more than 30 proactive insights Erica provides to
clients, the top insights include:
- Monitoring and managing recurring subscriptions – 2.6 million
per month
- Helping clients understand spending behaviors – 2.2 million per
month
- Keeping clients informed about deposits and refunds – 2.1
million per month
- When clients ask Erica for assistance, common inquiries
include:
- Requesting an account number or routing number – 1.7 million
per month
- Finding transactions – 1.5 million per month
- Assistance with money transfers and bill pay – 900,000 per
month
- More than 98% of clients get answers they need from Erica
within 44 seconds, on average. When further assistance is needed,
Bank of America's Mobile Servicing Chat capability connects clients
with a live representative who can answer more complex servicing
questions.
Just like the 213,000 teammates at Bank of America, fostering a
personal relationship with clients is a priority for Erica. For
example:
- Erica has sent birthday wishes to over 7,000 clients since
launch.
- Erica also has a sense of humor, sharing more than 30 jokes
with clients 49,000 times to date. For instance, "What did the
duck say to the bartender? Put it on my bill."
- In February 2024, Erica helped
clients get the most out of their next coffee date by alerting them
to the new partnership between Bank of America and Starbucks.
"Our data science team has made more than 50,000 updates to
Erica's performance since launch – adjusting, expanding and
fine-tuning natural language understanding capabilities, ensuring
answers and insights remain timely and relevant," said Katz. "2
billion client interactions is a compelling milestone though this
is only the beginning for Erica."
Bank of America
Bank of America is one
of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual
consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large
corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset
management and other financial and risk management products and
services. The company provides unmatched convenience in
the United States, serving
approximately 69 million consumer and small business clients with
approximately 3,800 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000
ATMs (automated teller machines) and award-winning digital banking
with approximately 57 million verified digital users. Bank of
America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and
investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset
classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and
individuals around the world. Bank of America offers
industry-leading support to approximately 4 million small business
households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online
products and services. The company serves clients through
operations across the United
States, its territories and more than 35 countries. Bank of
America Corporation stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE: BAC).
Zelle and the Zelle-related marks are wholly owned by Early
Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license.
For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements
and other important information, visit the Bank of America
newsroom and register for news email alerts.
Reporters May
Contact:
Andy
Aldridge, Bank of America
Phone: 1.980.387.0514
andrew.aldridge@bofa.com
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SOURCE Bank of America Corporation