Fintech Lili, which provides a business platform for small and medium-sized businesses, has teamed up with Amazon Web Services to deploy a generative AI-driven chatbot for its customers. 

The Accountant AI chatbot is powered by Amazon Bedrock, AWS’ gen AI foundation model, to provide personalized accountant services to SMBs, Lili co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Lilac Bar David, told Bank Automation News.

“A lot of SMBs don’t have a CFO or an accountant on retainer,” she said. “The Accountant AI is a real-time chatbot which gives a real-life CPA experience.” 

The chatbot can answer questions like how a business can maximize deductions, the best tax structure for the business and how to legally minimize business taxes. It was trained for more than six months to avoid hallucinations and was in beta testing for nearly three months among 5% of Lili customers, she said. 

Avidbank selects CorServ for credit card offering

Avidbank has selected payments service provider CorServ to offer a credit cards program to the bank’s commercial customers. 

The $2.2 billion Avidbank will provide its commercial clients with self-service interfaces, customizable reports about spending, spend control and virtual card services, according to a May 14 CorServ release. 

“We are seeing increased demand for commercial cards,” Arthur Wasson, executive vice president of treasury management services at Avidbank, told BAN, adding that it is seeing many businesses use virtual cards with spend controls and invoice data to pay vendors and suppliers, as nearly 40% “of the purchasing card volume is now from virtual cards.” 

CorServ implemented the solution in less than 120 days for Avidbank and provides an automated underwriting model for the bank, Wasson said.  

“There is significant interest in credit cards, although it’s less about access to credit,” Anil Goyal, chief executive of CorServ, told BAN. “Companies recognize the ease of use with credit cards and the efficiencies that come from leveraging virtual cards, ghost cards and integrated payables within their account payables processes.” 

First Federal Credit Union taps Eltropy for call centers

The $150 million First Federal Credit Union has tapped digital solutions provider Eltropy for its Voice+ solution for its call centers. 

The solution allows call center representatives to connect with customers through video, text messages and chat on one platform, Jack Chawla, vice president of product and strategy at Eltropy, told BAN. 

“It has all the functionality which is seen in a typical voice solution,” Chawla said. “The voice basically just flows into the existing experience” of AI-driven chatbots and text messaging services, which help customer representatives in assisting clients.  

Voice+ can provide representatives with automated responses to solve basic customer queries, including account balances and transferring funds, he said. 

There are seven financial institutions using Voice+ in beta phase with many others in the pipeline, Chawla said. 

The $2.1 billion Magnifi Financial and $1.5 billion Chelsea Groton Bank are also using Eltropy’s solutions. 

Founders Federal Credit Union, Q2 team for personalized digital banking platform

The $4 billion Founders Federal Credit Union has selected digital banking solutions provider Q2 to create a personalized digital banking platform. 

Q2 Engage, allows the financial institutions to create a customizable dashboard for their clients, Dallas Wells, senior vice president of product strategy at Q2, told BAN. The financial institution can create custom dashboards for retail and commercial clients to drive higher engagement. 

The dashboard can help banks direct customers to the services they find helpful, for example, urging them to get direct deposit or to move to online monthly statements instead of paper statements. 

“We’ve got 20+plus financial institutions using” the composable dashboard solution, Wells said. “We’re in the neighborhood of 2 million users that are using it live.” 

Q2 Engage can be provided via cloud or on premise and comes with “zero downtime upgrade” from the existing platform, Wells said. 

Visit Bank Automation News’ Transactions Database, which lists the technology selected or acquired by companies in the financial services industry, with a specific focus on technology that enhances automation.