Are You Taking Advantage of AI?

The future of Artificial Intelligence is already here – and it’s not just for techies. Joanne Smith, CEO of Recordsure and TCC, believes that AI is for everyone.

In one week, Joanne Smith had seen Artificial Intelligence used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, brew better tasting beer and keep cats away from a garden-proud software engineer’s lawn. AI is here and is no longer confined to robots or Hollywood science fiction.

In practice, today’s AI is often about algorithms analysing and processing large amounts of data. It can drive systems and applications in the background without the end user knowing it is there.

The AI effect

AI is already changing industries and creating economic advantages. Some legal firms use AI to process property deeds for planning permission, turning a task that used to take trainees and paralegals 15 minutes by hand into work completed in seconds.

Its value is not limited to processing or administration. AI is increasingly used to understand and analyse information. Virgin Trains uses an AI platform called inSTREAM to categorise customer emails, reading them for meaning and sentiment and reducing the man hours required from 35 to four.

AI does not have to replace human interactions. It can also support and enhance them. Digital channels have increased, but there is still a significant need for verbal conversations between staff and customers.

Many people are more comfortable speaking directly with someone because it feels more transparent and trustworthy. That is especially true in financial advice, where customers prefer to build a relationship before discussing intimate affairs.

Technology equals opportunity

Joanne founded Recordsure in 2012 after seeing that AI technology could help solve compliance issues facing financial institutions. Customer confidence had been eroded by the financial crisis and mis-selling scandals, creating an urgent need to rebuild trust.

With 30 years’ experience in financial services compliance, including 16 years running TCC, she saw that technology could provide the protection and reassurance firms and customers needed. She committed substantial finances and recruited a research and development team.

In 2013 Recordsure launched as a system using high quality recording techniques and AI technology to record and analyse customer and staff conversations, whether face-to-face or over the phone.

Building trust and transparency

Recordsure helps firms provide recordings of customer conversations and analyse those conversations to detect and flag potential mis-selling risks. That supports trust and transparency while replacing labour-intensive record keeping, a major burden for financial institutions.

The principle is simple: if a firm can record the conversation, it does not need to rely only on written notes from that conversation. Customers should be able to feel safe, reassured and protected when buying financial products and services, knowing they can access an authoritative record of what was said if required.

The same analysis helps business leaders identify the most at-risk conversations and address behaviours that contributed to poor outcomes in financial services.

Beyond financial services

The system is relevant beyond compliance and across sectors. By monitoring and analysing conversations, businesses can check whether customers receive good service, gather insight for business decisions and identify opportunities or areas for improvement.

For any organisation with regular customer conversations, Recordsure can become a tool for understanding those interactions. The question for leaders is what system, process or cultural improvements they could make if they used AI in their business.