Citizens Bank is seeing increasing adoption and efficiency from gen AI-driven chatbots. 

The $222 billion bank launched CiZi, a gen AI-driven chatbot for consumers, in November 2024, and has seen an 85% year-over-year increase in use, Lamont Young, head of digital and omnichannel banking, told FinAi News.

“Customers are primarily using the digital assistant for basic banking tasks, such as card management, money transfers and movement, disputing a transaction, account opening support and balance inquiries,” Young said. 

Twenty-eight percent of chats are being passed to a live agent, Young said. 

“We have seen a 44% decrease in calls to our contact center regarding mobile banking, which frees up more time and capacity for colleagues to focus on more complex tasks,” Young said. 

Citizens Bank is also seeing efficiencies gained through the deployment of its Digital Butler, Jo Wyper, chief transformation officer, told FinAi News. 

The chatbot saves clients more than 30,000 hours spent speaking with bank representatives, Wyper said, adding that it also saves 15,000 hours for bank employees annually. 

Development, training of Citizens’ chatbots 

The Providence, R.I.-based bank has taken a measured approach to developing and launching chatbots for consumer-facing tasks, Chief Data and Analytics Officer Krish Swamy told FinAi News. 

Historically, banks have used a “mapping exercise” to train chatbots — teaching the chatbot to respond to a specific question with specific words — Swamy said, adding that gen AI has advanced how chatbots can understand phrases by understanding the user’s intent. 

“If a consumer wants to know what their balance is, the chatbot can understand the request in multiple different word variations by understanding the intent of the question, which was not possible earlier,” Swamy said. 

Consumer adoption of self-service features is increasing as chatbots become more conversational, he said. That allows customer service representatives to develop relationships and sell more products and spend less time solving problems. 

Citizens Bank uses OpenAI for chatbot services because ChatGPT was the only game in town two years ago when the bank started developing its gen AI-driven chatbots, he said. “We are definitely exploring other models,” he added. 

Growth of financial services chatbots 

Overall, adoption of chatbots has been slow, Alyson Clarke, principal analyst for financial services at consultancy Forrester, told FinAi News.  

“In North America and Europe, only 1% of online adults who are banking customers say their preferred way to engage with their banks is via a chatbot,” she said. 

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