Artificial intelligence is the buzzword of the year.

Banks and other financial institutions have already recognized the potential (cost-saving) benefits of AI applications in both front-end, and back-end applications; among those use cases, chatbots have (arguably) enjoyed the most FI spotlight.

And fairly so.

A recent report by BI Intelligence suggests that chatbots have the potential to help businesses significantly cut labor costs. From the report:

While complete automation of the customer service workforce is not feasible — and in many cases, ineffective — automating customer management and sales positions in the U.S., where possible, through chatbots and other automation technologies could result in considerable savings.

The report estimated the total salary expenditure on securities, commodities, and financial services representatives to be at $32 billion in the U.S.; chatbots, the report says, could decrease that number by $15 billion — about 46% cut.

More information here.