Problem / Objective:

HDFC Bank wanted to promote banking on channels other than net banking and mobile banking and leverage the power of technology to acquire new users, monetize existing customers, increase engagement and provide a unique value add to the users.

Solution / Approach:

In December 2016, HDFC Bank introduced its chatbot on Facebook Messenger. Both existing customers and non-bank customers can find 'HDFC Bank OnChat' on Facebook, either by using the desktop application or the mobile application. The bank partnered with Niki.ai to create and integrate the chatbot on Facebook's platform to work as a virtual concierge service. This partnership aimed at providing an AI-based conversational banking experience to customers without leaving the chat window.

The integration was made using Niki's SDK (software development kit). It uses NLP to observe the significance of customers' needs instantly. With the help of machine learning, the platform understands and processes customers' needs efficiently by identifying trends and patterns in social contexts and regional disparities. Once the platform has enough data, it forms patterns and understands human speech or text. The chatbot has been able to achieve over 89.6% accuracy in understanding and responding to a user query.

Impact / Implementation:

Using the platform, HDFC Bank was able to acquire new customers, out of which 25% of users were non-HDFC bank customers. The bank has registered a 160% month-on-month growth in transactions since the launch of the chatbot.