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Doha: With technological advancements in the Qatari banking sector on the rise, especially within the post-COVID-19 and pre-FIFA World Cup 2022 context, banks continue to adapt to market and customer needs, strengthening Fintech within the country.
Virtual assistants are playing an increasingly important part in the daily lives of individuals and this cutting-edge technology offers customers a new way to engage and receive answers to inquiries in a friendly manner.
Forbes discussed the importance of Dukhan Bank’s virtual assistant ‘Rashid’ in enhancing customers’ experience. The article published in Forbes December 2021 issue entitled ‘Guiding customer experience to the next level’ shed light on how Dukhan Bank’s virtual assistant ‘Rashid’ paves the way towards digitally empowering customers.
Officially launched on November 21, the virtual assistant is gaining traction as Dukhan Bank’s lovable and helpful assistant, living up to his name - Rashid in Arabic translates to ‘guide’. “The virtual assistant is an example of Dukhan Bank’s promise to bring innovative and industry-leading practices and technologies to the Qatari banking sector. Rashid, while exceedingly friendly on the outside, is packed with a robust AI-powered system on the inside. Making use of cloud-based technology, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning, Dukhan Bank’s virtual assistant is able to process multiple tasks and complex questions, offer great insight on customer choices, and respond to questions in a friendly and personalised way,” the magazine said.
Since January 2021, when Dukhan Bank first announced its digital transformation strategy, the bank has released a multitude of digitalised products and services. These include contactless payment services under Dukhan-Pay (D-Pay) that enable Apple, Fitbit and Garmin Pay; and a mobile application, named ‘Most User-Friendly Mobile Banking Application’ at the International Finance Awards.
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) also launched last year a conversational virtual assistant armed with proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. ‘Zaki’, meaning smart, is an additional communication channel for QIB website visitors to interact with the bank. The chatbot service is part of QIB’s ongoing efforts to provide innovative digital solutions to empower its customers and meet their ever-changing banking needs.
The virtual Ai assistant, Zaki, is designed to provide relevant and contextual responses to QIB existing and new customers’ queries in a more convenient and instant manner. Developed with customers’ daily banking requirements in mind, Zaki will allow customers to interact with the bank 24/7, and receive information or advice on their enquiries directly through artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, without the need to visit a branch or call the QIB Call Center.
Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) on its official twitter handle said on January 6, “QIIB is providing services through many Digital channels: Personal & Corporate Internet Banking Mobile & phone Banking ATM’s Visual Phone Banking Garmin & Fitbit Pay from QIIB Pay Credit Cards with Contactless Technology."
Across the world, digital technologies are shaping industries. From cloud technology and customer experience technology, to augmented reality and voice capabilities, the focus is on offering the utmost convenience that is readily available through smart technology like smart phones, smart watches, and tablets.
