Kore.ai enables Mashreq Bank to enhance customer experience through AI

By Leandra Monteiro

Kore.ai, a conversational AI software company, announced its partnership with Mashreq Bank, one of the financial institutions in the UAE, to enhance digital engagement and support for customers through conversational AI. Mashreq will use Kore’s BankAssist virtual assistant product to provide personalised self-service and enable faster resolution of customer queries in both Arabic and English.

The partnership will enable Mashreq’s over half a million retail banking customers to use their voice or text in the communication channel of their choice to perform over 100 retail banking transactions. This will enable the bank’s customer service team to spend more time with customers on advanced interactions, making Mashreq’s service even more personalized.

“Mashreq was founded on the importance of building strong, long-term relationships, and we see the addition of conversational AI as the next technological leap forward in relationship banking. Our customers have come to expect world-class customer service from us, and with Kore as our conversational AI provider, we hope to not only meet, but surpass their expectations,” said Thomas Cherian, Executive Vice-President and Head of Technology at Mashreq. “We selected Kore because of the sophistication of the software’s intent recognition, dialogue management, as well as ease of use – factors which will enable our customers to have access to even better support for all their banking requirements.”

Through natural language processing (NLP), a branch of AI, BankAssist interprets customer inquiries in voice or text, interfaces with the bank’s back-office systems to execute transactions, and seamlessly transitions to a live agent when necessary. When customers shift from one communication channel to another, return to the bank for subsequent service, or move to a live agent, the virtual assistant maintains the context of historical conversations to ensure a consistent experience. BankAssist is built on Kore’s no-code platform and is pre-integrated with common banking systems and third-party apps.

“It’s the entire customer experience journey that we’re targeting,” said Kore Founder and CEO Raj Koneru. “In collaboration with Mashreq, we are delivering a truly digital experience that makes banking enjoyable for customers. We want to address the challenges of limited self-service and lack of personalization that banking customers commonly face by bringing in conversational AI capabilities, which can automate routine business interaction and make technology smarter. It also helps banks build new efficiencies that can fuel their growth and expansion.”

Mashreq will also leverage SmartAssist, Kore’s contact center as a service (CCaaS) product, to automate inbound customer support on the cloud. Through a simple SIP transfer, SmartAssist deflects calls to digital and automates support conversations. SmartAssist also gives customers automated speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS), making it easier for IVR customers to enhance their support technology stack.