Is Siri-like functionality the next enhancement for mobile banking apps?
It is for USAA customers.
USAA, the 28th largest bank by deposits, is working on “doing something on voice” so that its customers can do banking functions like bill pay by speaking aloud the command, Neff Hudson, assistant vice president of emerging channels, tells Bank Innovation.
“We’re already playing in a pilot but probably won’t go into a full release until the end of this year or early next year,” Hudson says.
The measured rollout is meant to give USAA enough time to work out the kinks with the mobile virtual assistant technology. USAA said that the initial pilot participants pool from a limited group of members and employees.
“We need to make sure it’s functional,” says Hudson, adding that there’s a fine line between “stupid computer” and “gee, that’s cool.”
USAA’s move is ahead of the banking mobile app pack peers. Though an iPhone app by e*Trade Financial Corp. added in a voice control feature this spring, voice command in banking is in its infancy to date.
“People want to do everything on their mobile phones,” Hudson tells Bank Innovation. “The bar never gets lower.”
Love this — if only because at least USAA is thinking about serving the customers in creative ways. Whether this will work out for the best for USAA is another matter entirely. Siri has not been getting much love lately. A Piper Jaffray analyst recently gave Siri a D vs. Google’s text search. The analyst posed 800 questions to Siri and Google. According to Huffington Post, “Indoors, Siri was able to comprehend the words he spoke 89 percent of the time; at the busy intersection, that percentage fell to 83. … Of the 800 questions asked, Siri returned a correct answer just 62 percent of the time. Google, meanwhile, returned a correct answer 86 percent of the time.
Another Apple observer, Terry Stawer, the president and CEO of LifeSpring Foundation, gave Siri a verbal IQ test. She’s not too sharp that Siri, because he IQ came in at 88, which is considered to be in the “low average range.” Most damning was Siri’s “IQ” in comprehensive: “extremely low” was the verdict.
Criticisms of Siri have even spurred a couple of lawsuits against Apple for deceptive advertising.
(My own experiences with Siri have not mirrored that’s adorable ads, unfortunately.)
All this means USAA has its work cut out for it. Sure, using Siri within banking services would be great. Whether Siri can hear well is the question.
More details were announced today: http://www.nuance.com/company/news-room/press-releases/Nuance-Introduces-Nina.docx