Bank of America is increasingly deploying generative AI in its call centers to streamline client call resolution and place new technology into call center employee hands. 

EricaAssist, the bank’s AI agent for call center employees, is getting a gen AI upgrade, Tom Ellis, chief information officer and head of consumer technology, told FinAi News. EricaAssist is available to 18,000 call center representatives. 

“The best way to take advantage of newer gen AI capabilities is with our client-facing associates who are servicing customers,” he said. 

Card decline resolution

For example, gen AI has been deployed within EricaAssist to resolve issues involving declined cards, Ellis said. 

There are hundreds of reasons a card is declined, he said. Without gen AI, a call center associate must narrow down the reasons for the decline. With gen AI working in the background, a reason for the decline can be determined and shared with the call center associate in real time. 

“That’s just a simple example of one use case of how [gen AI] makes [representatives] more efficient and basically shortens the time for them to answer the client’s question,” Ellis said. 

The card decline solution is deployed to 5,000 call center employees, more than one-third of the bank’s 18,000 call center representatives, Ellis said. 

Call summarization

The bank is also piloting gen AI use for call summarization, Ellis said. 

Traditionally, at the end of client calls, representatives manually write up call notes and complaints, Ellis said. Now, gen AI is saving three to four minutes of manual post-call wrap up. 

The call summarization tool is available to 1,000 representatives for now, Ellis said. 

Integrating AI into workflows

Getting AI into the hands of employees is a bank-wide effort. 

According to Bank of America’s second-quarter earnings presentation, teams using AI include: 

• 20,000 wealth professionals use AI to assist with meeting-related activities; 

• 4,000 corporate and investment banking professionals use it for research and presentation preparation; 

• 19,000 developers use real-time coding assistance; and 

• 2,500 global payments solutions sales and servicing representatives use AI to expedite client inquiry response time. 

“New AI capabilities have improved service, increased efficiency and allowed teammates to focus on higher-value client interactions,” Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick said during the Q2 earnings call.  

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