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ChatGPT is here to stay – how will it impact financial services?
The Fintech Forecast is a series of guest articles published each month from thought leaders at ACI Worldwide.
Author: Elise Thrale
ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool developed by OpenAI, which can have human conversations and solve problems. When it was released in the end of 2022, it reached 1 million users in its first week. Now, three months after its launch, it has already reached 100 million users. ChatGPT is an abundantly powerful AI tool, with ability to debug, write and explain code, write any form of prose, answer endless encyclopaedia questions, and give advice.
Natural language processing is a form of artificial intelligence which allows generative AI to understand human interaction through words. It can mimic complex human behaviour. But with great power, comes with great responsibility. ChatGPT has the potential to change the working world, including the way consumers interact with financial services.
How could banks and financial institutions use ChatGPT?
So what impact will ChatGPT have on the payments industry? I asked it myself, and here is what it told me:
- Generate receipts and invoices
- Develop chatbots to assist customers with making payments, answering questions about payment options, and troubleshooting issues
- Help create more natural and efficient interfaces for payment systems, such as voice controlled payment systems
- Guide improved user experience and increase the efficiency of payment systems by providing natural language processing capabilities.
- Give financial services advice to consumers
Outside of what ChatGPT tells us it can do, there is a world of opportunity, and it is something that financial institutions cannot ignore. It has the power to turn customer experiences into customer journeys, and to pave the way for accessible financial advice.
As with any innovation, there is a fear it could replace jobs. If we look back at the creation of ATMs, they took on a lot of the work of a traditional bank teller. But in turn, this allowed them to upskill and start giving advice on financial services, such as loans, and savings. As ChatGPT is adopted more by the financial services industry, it is bound to open up a new world of innovation and career opportunities, but nothing can beat the human touch. People will always play a crucial role, especially when giving customers personalised financial services or customer care.
Embracing natural language processing in a world of change
Just as ChatGPT can understand weird and wonderful human phrases, its power to change the world around it may see those evolve. It is common to ask someone to “wind down” the car window, even though the mechanism has gone from manual to automatic, perhaps one day ChatGPT will make “writing a check” feel even more antiquated than it is, from generating automated written checks.
However, this automation cannot be taken lightly. As with all aspects of modernization in financial services and payments, there is a risk of new fraud and financial crime methods associated with it. Hackers can use generative AI to create malware, craft perfect phishing emails, generate convincing invoices, successfully impersonate bank employees or other people we implicitly trust. In the UK in 2021, a 71% increase in Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams saw it overtake card fraud losses for the first time. Generative AI could play a huge role in making the next generation of fraudsters more sophisticated and therefore more successful when scamming victims.
To stop generative AI fraud in its tracks, banks and financial institutions will need to deploy AI to detect unusual patterns of transactions, implement biometrics to analyse strange behavioural patterns and make sure machine learning models are continuously refreshed as new trends arise.
The future of natural language processing
Natural language processing is already fairly widespread, and consumers are already using it every day. When using a word processor for example, natural language processing helps us with with auto-correct, plagiarism checkers, online chatbots, etc.
Although all new innovations come with risks, we have seen this work well for us in the past. For the next stage of natural language processing to work to our collective benefit, not only banks and financial institutions, but all industries need to find the best way to use it to advantage their customers, while having the right tools in place to protect them.
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