Finance professionals can transform their decision-making process with the help of chatbots and conversational AI. Making investment choices is complex and often challenging, especially when trying to balance clients’ needs, goals and concerns. How can chatbots improve operations? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using AI in finance?
Benefits of Chatbots for Investment Decision-Making
There are countless applications for chatbots and conversational AI in finance, including several amazing benefits for investment decision-making. Utilizing chatbots can lead to more informed choices and stronger communication with customers.
Brainstorming
The main use of chatbots in financial decision-making is brainstorming. Professional investors should not use AI to make decisions, but they can use chatbots to generate ideas. Tools like ChatGPT can often identify patterns and connections many humans don’t notice. As a result, they’re a great way to explore new ideas and strategies.
Financial advisers can also customize the brainstorming process with AI. They can ask chatbots for ideas or information about their clients’ interests or goals. They’re not limited to existing articles or guides. Chatbots help advisers have a unique conversation about people’s needs and generate solutions tailored to their objectives.
Market Research
Chatbots can help research background information to support an investment decision. The one drawback is that many chatbots are not up to date. For example, until late 2023, ChatGPT could not access data from after 2021, which was the year it was trained. Many chatbots are “frozen in time” like this due to the time and effort it takes to update training data.
However, basic research is still highly efficient with the help of a chatbot. For example, an investor could ask for information about a business or industry they are unfamiliar with. A chatbot could also walk them through various industrial and business processes to better understand clients’ operations and needs.
Conducting Customer Surveys and Research
Chatbots are particularly useful for researching customers’ perspectives and needs. Financial advisers can learn a lot from everyday interactions between customers and chatbots, especially today’s more advanced conversational AI models. One of the top benefits of conversational AI is improved data analytics through customer interactions and questions.
For example, an investment firm might notice its clients are frequently using a customer service AI to ask about the meaning of CAGR. Information like this helps financial advisers gauge customers’ awareness of finance terminology so they can communicate more effectively. It also reduces customer support costs by up to 30% due to the reduced need for human intervention.
Chatbots and conversational AI are even helpful for conducting customer surveys. Rather than filling out a multiple-choice questionnaire, people can have normal conversations with a chatbot to convey their needs. This allows for more personalized responses that help financial advisers tailor their decisions to clients’ needs and goals with greater clarity and precision.
Customer-Friendly Communication
Conversational AI is a great tool for improving communication with customers. After investors decide how to use funds, they can use AI to facilitate clear and helpful dialogues with their clients.
For example, the client might not fully understand a certain market, concept or process. They can use a chatbot to quickly get a beginner-friendly explanation. Similarly, investors can use generative AI to create emails and other communication materials that explain their decisions and research in a readable, easy-to-understand way.
Chatbots are highly effective for customer communication in general. One of the most popular use cases for AI in banking today is customer service, with many major financial institutions implementing it. Chatbots can be highly convenient for clients and financial advisers alike since they provide answers to most basic questions instantly. It removes wait times and frees advisers to handle more complicated queries.
The availability of rapid, on-demand customer service can even help improve financial decision-making. Chatbots can collect valuable information from customers even when their advisers are unavailable. As a result, financial advisers can ensure they always have the most up-to-date understanding of their customers’ needs, questions and concerns.
Potential Drawbacks of Chatbots in Finance
There are many amazing benefits to using chatbots in the financial decision-making process. However, financial advisers and investors must be aware of a few drawbacks to maximize the value and effectiveness of chatbots and conversational AI for investors and customers.
One unfortunate downside to many chatbots is a lack of up-to-date information. While AI developers are making progress in resolving this issue, it is still something to keep in mind. A lack of recent information means important factors like current market conditions aren’t part of AI’s suggestions and conversations.
Additionally, chatbots can get confused and “hallucinate” information occasionally. Sometimes, AI models like ChatGPT mix up facts, fabricate research studies or confuse terminology. This can lead to inaccurate results and frustrating conversations. Luckily, industry leaders predict that this issue will become less common down the road.
Despite these issues, chatbots and conversational AI can be beneficial in the investment process. They’re especially useful for fostering good communication with clients and customers. However, financial advisers should always double-check any important information from a chatbot before making their final decision.
Innovative Investing With the Help of Chatbots
Investment decisions are challenging and complex in the best of circumstances. Chatbots can aid in research tasks and improve communication with customers. Utilizing chatbots and conversational AI enables financial advisers to build a more customer-friendly, streamlined decision-making process that prioritizes high-quality communication.
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