Would you let a machine manage your retirement savings? What about setting up a direct debit mortgage payment? Technology is reshaping the financial sector delivering services faster, smarter and cheaper than ever. However, in a sector where consumer trust is hard won and closely linked to human contact, how can brands convince customers that AI is the future? New research combining traditional qualitative with digital analytics considers the tussle between functionality and emotion in this space and explores consumers’ feelings about AI services. This session will look across a spectrum of services from chat bots to robo-advice & beyond.

1. | |Finance + the Machine 1
Finance + the Machine
Who will win the trust battle?
15 November 2018

2. THE CHALLENGE:
How do we convince consumers that AI is the way forward?
2
The current AI landscape is not helping to create trust in
the technology
Momentum
in AI
Media
influence
Consumer
perceptions

3. To delve deeper into the
emotional barriers and underlying
issues
Identify and quantify core themes
and obtain an unfiltered view of
the market
Immersions
8
one-on-one interviews
Digital Analytics
700K
consumer conversations
extracted
3

4. Data
sources
Financial forums
Government data
Media coverage
& consumer discussions
Search & social media
Review sites
We meshed together explicit online conversations from
different sources to understand all relevant themes
4

5. Literature
Review
Data
Extraction &
Processing
Text
Mining
Data
Analysis
Cross
Source
Analysis
- Data cleaning
- Spam cleaning
- Bot removals
- Unstructured data
to structured
thematic themes
- Variance by
source &
segments
- Trend mining
- Tonality mapping
- Theme
Quantification
- Cross Source
analysis
- Influence
driver analysis
A rigorous data cleaning process is required and new
and traditional techniques are used to analyse the data
5

6. Give consumers a
reassuring safety net
Convey tangible
benefits
Know when to be a
human vs. a machine
THERE ARE THREE KEY STEPS TO BUILDING TRUST IN AI
WITHIN FINANCIAL SERVICES
1. 2. 3.
There are three key steps to building trust in AI within
financial services

7. 1. 2. 3.
Give consumers a
reassuring safety net
Convey tangible
benefits
Know when to be a
human vs. a machine
THERE ARE THREE KEY STEPS TO BUILDING TRUST IN AI
WITHIN FINANCIAL SERVICES
There are three key steps to building trust in AI within
financial services

8. Secretive
Rogue tech
Big brother
Hacking
Replacing jobs
The future
Innovation
Exciting
Support
Work life balance
Consumers aren’t interested in
tech for tech’s sake
What’s actually
in it for me?
Claire, 34
8
Brands need to talk about the benefits, not AI
AI conjures up a range of
emotions in consumers

9. Unwillingness to give up
some tasks to a machine
• Do tasks better than a human
Security concerns • Deliver a financial or time benefit
INITIAL BARRIERS BENEFITS WHICH CAN OVERRIDE BARRIERS
Sceptical of data used
• Use multi-faceted inputs
• Use the widest data set possible
1
2
3
Conveying certain tangible benefits can trade-off lesser
barriers
9

10. 86
82
80
46
45
Funding Circle
Starling
Pensionbee
Barclays
HSBC
AI enables self-serve and satisfaction through learning
which can help rebalance the relationship
Brand sentiment - Positive (%) Drivers of sentiment
Innovation Ease Speed
Customer service issues
10

11. Unbiased appeal to Women
I like the idea that Robo-advisors will
make decisions on the best outcomes
and aren’t influenced by character or
stereotype.
Inclusivity for younger consumers
Planning to go to Uni next year, however I think
I have a CIFA marker on my name as there was
some fraudulent activity on my card that
wasn’t my fault. Are there any banks that would
take me to use for my student loan?
Try a pre-card with a fintech bank like Monzo.
Removing legacy data inputs and creating unbiased AI programming are central to maintaining appeal on this dimension.
AI’s lack of bias can open up the category to those who
are currently underserved
11

12. Give consumers a
reassuring safety net
Convey tangible
benefits
Know when to be a
human vs. a machine
THERE ARE THREE KEY STEPS TO BUILDING TRUST IN AI
WITHIN FINANCIAL SERVICES
There are three key steps to building trust in AI within
financial services
1. 2. 3.

13. Leverage the
brand
1
Expertise in banking e.g.
FCA backing
Provide reassurance
around brand longevity
Give control2
Ability to manually
approve algorithm actions
Control over how
algorithms make decisions
Allow for human
intervention
3
Availability of immediate
human intervention and
support
Beyond benefits, consumers need additional reassurance
13

14. THERE ARE THREE KEY STEPS TO BUILDING TRUST IN AI
WITHIN FINANCIAL SERVICES
There are three key steps to building trust in AI within
financial services
Give consumers a
reassuring safety net
Convey tangible
benefits
Know when to be a
human vs. a machine
1. 2. 3.

15. 44%
56%
59%
41%
1.
Chatbots aren’t
smart enough to
do complex
tasks yet
2.
Brands haven’t
cracked the
balance of using
machines and
humans
3.
Consumers not
made aware
they’re using a
chatbot
Only 7% prefer chatbots
over a human
Chatbots may be the future of customer interaction, but
on the surface they underperform due to functional issues
Chatbot
Human
Functional performance
15

16. However, there is a general shift towards
impersonating humans further
Implicitly, there are significant emotional barriers as
consumers don’t trust technology impersonating a human
Can’t handle subjectivity
A bot using a human
tone is patronising
Trust diminishes when
impersonating a human
16

17. of customer service agents said
being freed up to answer more
complex issues is improving their skills
79%
Impact
on jobs
Need to be
better / not
working
Fraud
Risk
Potential
for the
future
Availability
Speed
However, both consumers and staff recognise the potential
of chatbots
Internal traction
Consumers are positive
about the future
25%
10%
8%
22%
18%
9%7%
17

18. Shallow
Rich
Wide
ranging
Narrow
- Understand underlying emotions
- Probe for answers
- Test current and hypothetical
propositions not online
Qualitative
- Understand the universe of
themes
- Provides quantification
- Unbiased research approach
- Cheaper and faster insights
Digital analytics
Mixing conventional research with new analytical
techniques provides the strongest consumer understanding
Mixing both
– the ideal
scenario
18

19. QUESTIONS ?