Harnessing AI to keep banking conversational

Virgin Money’s latest innovation harnesses AI to keep banking conversational and complement the human touch of customer service  

Allegra Patrizi (ex van Hovell) , Managing Director, Business & Commercial at Virgin Money , explains how the use of AI and conversational banking, including the Redi virtual assistant, is helping to enhance Virgin Money’s customer service offering, as part of a wider digital transformation. 

In the last 18 months, interest and excitement around the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly moved from the fringes to mainstream conversation. In banking, intelligent solutions that harness AI have amazing potential to enhance the customer experience, especially when combined with our friendly, personal and knowledgeable human teams. 

For Virgin Money, the AI opportunity strongly aligns with our purpose of making you happier about money and our ambition to be the UK’s best and most loved digital bank, as it allows us to better serve our customers in the way that’s best for them and that they love the most. Leading the way to deliver a top-class digital-first customer experience is Redi – Virgin Money’s AI-powered Virtual Assistant.  

Since introducing Redi for our credit card customers just over a year ago, we have seen delighted customers and some strong results. We are pleased to share that we have now also introduced the state-of-the-art virtual assistant into our personal banking app, making Redi available 24/7 for customers who manage their current accounts via the app too.  A great step forward for our beloved customers! 

Introducing Redi 

Put simply, Redi is our in-app, virtual assistant trained to help our customers manage their account quickly and easily by providing the right support. Behind the easy-to-use chat function, Redi is powered by Virgin Money’s suite of Microsoft Copilot products and was developed in collaboration with IBM Consulting. It is also connected to Virgin Money’s core systems, so it can personalise its approach to each customer.  

Redi has been trained in over 70 common customer queries, from requesting a PIN to viewing statements, and it can even carry out an action on a customer’s behalf. With permission from the customer, Redi can support a range of requests – such as ordering a replacement card, setting up a direct debit and changing a credit limit – and provides advice and information to customers on how to do things digitally, such as how to amend a direct debit, how to report fraud and how to view statements, to save customers time and effort. 

A digital companion with personality 

Our colleagues in the customer service team also view Redi as a digital companion, augmenting their knowledge and support rather than replacing it, with the ability to ‘hand over’ to a human to assist if Redi can’t solve the query or an additional level of expertise is needed.  

We also know that customers want their digital journeys to feel human, not sterile and functional. That’s why Redi was built to embody Virgin Money’s unique tone of voice – it can respond in a fun and engaging way (when appropriate), offer jargon-free help, can understand colloquialisms, replies empathetically when required and can even tell jokes.  

At Virgin Money, we know the strength of the human connectedness, so when our customers do need additional support, their query requires person to person interaction, or they would simply prefer to speak to someone to solve their question, we have real people on hand to help.  

Supporting customer queries efficiently 

Running Redi alongside our customer care team allows us to deal with simple actions, questions and requests really quickly, while freeing people up to deal with customers who need additional support. Much more than a chatbot, Redi performs the task, instead of simply telling customers how to complete the task themselves. In fact, over 50% of conversations with our credit card customers take place through Redi, and more than half of those conversations are solved by Redi without needing to go on to a live chat with a colleague - we believe this is one of the highest proportions in the industry and are looking forward to seeing similar results for our personal banking customers.  

Redi also has a proactive setting that means it can alert a customer if there is an action that needs their input or approval in real time. For example, if a customer’s card is nearing its expiry date, Redi will alert them, let them know how long they can use their existing card for and confirm their address is correct before a new card is sent out. For customers who manage their current and savings accounts via the app, they can ask Redi for advice on how to do things, such as how to unblock a pin or how to use their card abroad. This approach allows Redi to carry out servicing while reducing fraud. 

Augmenting the human connection  

When it comes to customers who may not feel confident managing their money digitally, Redi is there to support with this too. It is designed to reassure users and educate them on how to complete an action correctly and safely. We recognise that some customers are wary of using AI technology and can be apprehensive about making transactions or solving queries digitally, and so feel the need to contact us to help reassure them it is done correctly. We want to be humans for humans, with all our wonderful quirkiness, fears and emotions…and Redi is only a help in achieving that.  

Customers should feel reassured that through this combination of conversational banking, interactive AI technology and heartfelt human support, we can make managing money easier, better and more accessible for many.  

Award-winning solution 

Just one year since launch, Redi’s already proving popular with customers and peers across the industry, with unique features and functionality that differentiate it clearly from your average ‘chatbot’. Not only has the technology supported over one million conversations so far, it’s earned one the highest customer satisfaction scores across the bank and has also become award winning, taking the "Best application of AI in Financial Services" award at the annual Card & Payments Awards. This industry recognition is a huge validation for us. It celebrates the hard work that our teams have put into building Redi, and demonstrates how Virgin Money is at the cutting edge of digital customer experiences.  

So, what’s next? 

Having Redi on hand for both our personal banking and credit card customers is just the start of an exciting journey we have planned for our newest ‘team member’.  

Redi is helping to make the digital banking experience more tailored, straightforward and effective, all with that signature Virgin flair. Our focus moving forward is to look at where we can integrate Redi for our other products and how we can continue to use conversational banking to enhance our digital offering. Alongside our customer service teams, we’ll continue to embrace new technologies that offer the best customer experiences and which help us deliver our purpose of Making you happier about money.”