Pentagon Federal Credit Union is teeing up a member-facing chatbot after the Tysons, Va.-based company successfully implemented an internal one earlier this year, according to Chief Information Officer Joe Thomas.

The $25 billion dollar credit union plans to launch the chatbot technology, provided by Salesforce, later this year or early next year on both the mobile platform and online banking, Thomas said. PenFed is currently researching how to implement it via text message to address account-specific inquiries and changes, “but that has an authentication issue we have to solve,” he noted.

PenFed integrated Salesforce’s chatbot technology in February for employees interacting with the IT service desk. As PenFed employees transitioned to working remotely in the heat of the pandemic, the chatbot was able to assist with password changes, connecting to the VPN and other IT-related issues. The chatbot handles about 25% of such interactions, Thomas said. “We tried to eat our own dog food, so we’re trying it out and learning and developing all the technology and processes, do’s and don’ts before we put it to our members,” he said.

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PenFed joins a host of financial institutions that already offer chatbot technology, which has gained traction during the pandemic. For instance, traffic utilizing TD’s chatbot, Clari, has doubled since the start of the pandemic, while RBC’s Ask NOMI has answered more than 2 million questions from 350,000 customers since launching mid-March. Meanwhile, Bank of America’s Erica now understands more than 60,000 coronavirus-related terms, questions and requests related to managing cashflow and increasing savings, according to Aditya Bhasin, the bank’s head of consumer and wealth management technology.

Salesforce, for its part, has seen a 73% increase in weekly chatbot sessions among its financial services customers compared with February levels. “The most obvious change is the focus on chatbots as an important digital engagement tool to manage customer requests in a rapidly changing environment,” said Rohit Mahna, senior vice president and general manager of financial services at Salesforce. “Financial institutions represent one of the biggest sectors in terms of customer support volume and have a large portion of requests well suited to chatbots, especially in the area of client banking.” As such, financial institutions typically turn to chatbot tech as a scalable customer service solution, he said.

Looking ahead, chatbot technology will continue to evolve, given its widespread adoption, Mahna said, noting that banks and credit unions will want to expand the technology to handle more personalized transactional processes, updating credit cards, making payments and reporting travel notifications. Bot-agent hybrid interactions will also likely grow, he added.