Unless you’re in my inner circle or are Amazon, you probably won’t anticipate my needs.

That’s because I’m reticent to talk about what I want — part confusion, part insecurity, part growing up on a dirt road in the Midwest. But even with my lips usually locked, banks and card issuers have my transaction data to help determine what I’m seeking, even when I’m not articulating those needs. That’s power.

Identifying that FI consumer insight advantage, technology companies have been sprouting services that aim to preemptively help customers do banking-related stuff. Digital wallets, for example, promise to trigger a barista to make a consumer’s latte before he enters a store as a way to incentivize usage. But there’s another opportunity for banks that has been hiding behind the limelight of pre-ordering services which deserves attention: Provide ways to resolve customers’ banking woes as soon as they reach out. In other words, banks should anticipate what customers need before they connect with their FIs, via phone, online or mobile. In turn, banks, with the help of voice technology, can preemptively offer their customers ways to remedy their banking plights. Perhaps a consumer logs into a mobile banking app, for example, and is greeted with: “Are you concerned with overdraft fees? Can I help you with that?” or maybe the consumer asks the mobile app “Did I pay my cellphone bill?” and the technology provides the customer with follow-up information he might want to ascertain. And that’s just the beginning.

Though offering such refined banking customer service remains in its infancy stages in America, progressions in technology have made some traction in recent weeks that’s worth applauding. On the heels of USAA announcing its expanding voice-enabled mobile banking app plans, customer interaction services provider Personetics tells Bank Innovation  its first pilot partner has gone live with its product Digital Banker, a predictive virtual assistant solution, this week. Though Personetics, which is funded by Sequoia Capital and Carmel Ventures, remains hushed about whom its partner is for at least a couple weeks more, the company does reveal its initial customer is an international card issuer that serves more than three million customers. The card issuer has piloted the technology for three months.

Digital Banker, which engages users in a verbal dialogue, wants to “anticipate what customers want before they open up and speak,” Ido Ophir, VP of product management, tells Bank Innovation.  Beyond pulling in data like a customer’s transactions and the accounts he owns, Digital Banker also takes into account customer intent, such as what type of transaction he is viewing and layers in business intelligence. In turn, Ophir says the product can predict what a customer’s problem is so that when he initiates contact with the bank, the FI can have actionable resolutions ready. From its pilot thus far, Ophir says Personetics has gleaned a few common customer queries, including:

• Consumers questioning charges;
• Consumers wanting to connect with local merchants through their banks; and
• Consumers inquiring about whether their account balance is correct.

Digital Banker has more than 100 pre-loaded banking topics, including transaction verification assistance, spending questions, fee explanations and fraud-related inquiries to date. By deploying the technology, the vendor argues that banks will save call center resources while improving the customer experience.

Digital Banker was launched in January 2011, but Personetics is going live with its first Digital Banker client this week.

I took a tour of Digital Banker earlier today and was keen on what I saw. Though I rarely interact with my bank — and hope to keep it that way — my experience to date on resolving my bank issues has felt akin to imprisonment each and every time. I don’t want to wait on a phone for 15 minutes if I think there’s an error with my account — I want resolution. Quick. To have a bank that could suggest solutions to my issue as soon I reached out to it would be wonderful, though I imagine misinterpretations of my data are inevitable. Even Amazon gets its wrong. I’ll never forget an industry speaker narrating how the retailer once mistook his purchase of an urn for a bong and subsequently started to pitch him on other bongs he might like. But at least with Digital Banker, there’s a parachute to pull. Indeed, Ophir says there’s always the option for him to select “something else.”