Transcription:
Desiree Wolfe: (
We're gonna get started, on our 4:00 PM session, which is enhancing the customer experience with AI. Our moderator today is Daniel Wolfe and our panelist today is Bess Healy.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Bess, why don't you introduce yourself before we start talking about somebody completely different?
Bess Healy: (
My name is Bess Healy and I'm the CIO of Synchrony. I've been in the role, almost a year and it's a return to technology. I started my career in technology after seven years in the US army. I've had some good experiences on the commercial side, leading one of our largest portfolios and done a number of opportunities with Synchrony around strategy and transformation. So it's been a great opportunity to come back and focus around really the connection and technology strategy enablement across our products, our platforms, and really serving our partners, but also with the customer at the center of what we're focused on.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So here we go, the customer experience with AI. So it's an AI themed question, who is Sydney?
Bess Healy: (
At Synchrony, we have a three-pronged AI strategy. We have intelligent virtual assistant, Sydney. A big focus around machine learning and also intelligent automation. Sydney is our chat bot, our intelligent virtual assistant, but she's not just any chat bot. We have put a lot of focus in really developing a more humanized experience in your interaction and engagement with her. It's caused us to do some interesting things that, that some might not actually expect, which has caught your attention.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Who is waffles?
Bess Healy: (
Waffles is Sydney's dog. So a little bit about Sydney. She is 27 years old. We have done a number of things to really help humanize her with a focus around empathy and that's because empathy is rooted in one of our core values of caring. So a lot of our effort is focused around building out who Sydney is, so that not just our employee base and our associates that serve our customers in addition to Sydney, but also our customers can identify with her. So we've done things such as we had people take, Myers Briggs test as Sydney to learn more about what a personality of an associate who's caring for customers might be like, we have continued to grow and evolve her she's been around since 2017. She never stays the same. She's always learning. She has really some incredible capabilities and there's no finish line in Sydney's growth.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So there's kind of like a disconnect in my mind with a virtual person trying to be as human as possible because the customers who choose to interact with Sydney know they're talking to a constructed personality. They know they're not talking to a human being. They may have the option of going into a branch, calling up on the phone, email, but they choose to interact with Sydney. So why is it so important that Sydney be humanlike when Sydney is talking probably primarily to people who don't want to talk to a human.
Bess Healy: (
That's actually a very fair assessment but the fact remains that people like and communicate effectively with other humans. So there's a way to do that in a very succinct way. So as you think about, making her smarter over time, adding to her skillset, one of the key focuses is making her more effective. As you can imagine, that's a win for the customer because we see north of 85%, resolution rate with her, but it's also a win for Synchrony because we can provide 24/7 services without having humans doing that service and allowing our humans to really focus more on the things that only humans can do and Sydney can d. She's gonna be close to 17 million interactions this year and the things that she can do, really largely overlap, but she can do them in a way that helps people engage, without being on the phone necessarily. So it really does get at some key aspects of customer expectations and demands.
Daniel Wolfe: (
I like how you refer to the employees as humans. If I address any of my coworkers or reporters as humans, they'd probably wonder if I had been replaced with something that isn't human.
Bess Healy: (
Well, they're the front lines to many of our customers still everyday.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So, you had mentioned that Sydney adapts. Can you talk a bit about how Sydney adapts a customer by customer or does Sydney grow up?
Bess Healy: (
Sydney is gonna continue to grow and learn. We take a ton of the feedback that we get. We monitor and evolve, her language capabilities, her language understanding. We have a human assisted machine learning and we just continue to really grow and evolve her based on the interactions she can take on the perspective of the brand that she's representing a Synchrony partner. For example, if she's talking to someone who's a Lowes customer, you may see different language then versus her engaging with a customer who is perhaps an Ashley home, Ashley furniture customer. Those interactions matter because customers have expectations from the retailers that they engage with. So we're able to train her and evolve her in ways that help keep that partner reflection and perspective, but also engage with the customer as well.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So you'd mentioned that Sydney is just one of your, embodiments of how you use AI. What else would you like to highlight about your use of AI?
Bess Healy: (
Another key area, I would say is around intelligent automation. Typically people think of robotics, process automation. We think of automation as really a broad ecosystem of capabilities from task orientation and a suite of technology that you can leverage to automate a customer experience or an associate experience or something in the back office. That's definitely one of the key areas and the third area that I mentioned, in our focus, in our strategy is also around machine learning.
Daniel Wolfe: (
What about fraud? How does your use of AI help with combating fraud?
Bess Healy: (
We have a large focus, it's a very, high emotional point from a customer perspective, and certainly it's a big impact to Synchrony and our partners as well. Fraud detection and prevention is a big deal and so it turns out with leverage of machine learning and all the data that we have available both from a Synchrony perspective, as well as from our partners, we've really been able to have a big impact on our ability to detect fraud, and really, the legitimacy of transactions from a customer standpoint, etc. We've made sizeable investments based on leveraging a lot of our cloud based API technologies. The data that we have that feeds into these capabilities that we've invested in the drive both the customer experience, but also help drive a strong reduction in losses for Synchrony as well.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Is there any particular aspect of the fight against fraud that AI has proven particularly useful for or that you've changed your perspective on through your use of AI?
Bess Healy: (
The combination of our machine learning, capabilities with our tool sets in the authentication space. The cumulative effect of those two things have been a really big deal and growing after fraud rates. We've seen a 50% reduction there over the last few years based on those investments and maturity in that space and something we'll continue to focus on, the bad guys, never stop.
Daniel Wolfe: (
When did you start this AI journey and what were your priorities then?
Bess Healy: (
Actually we've had a three-pronged strategic approach, as I mentioned before for some time now. One of the biggest challenges in the AI space is how you harness your data. We made large investments coming out of our IPO and I mentioned our cloud based API capabilities, but we also invested and continue to invest in our data strategy. So north of 5 billion overall investment coming out of our IPO, and it's positioned us for success and understanding how technology can drive and influence the payments experience. Certainly, from an AI perspective, no matter the stage of the customer journey, we're always focused on how we can better leverage our data and drive that more personalized experience and engagement for our customers, meet them in the channel, the context and the moment that matters for them.
Bess Healy: (
We talked fraud, obviously that's very high emotional, but certainly in the servicing side of things as well with the use of Sydney, with the ability to auto adjudicate. In some cases, aspects around fraud claims and disputes and things along those lines. We try to seamlessly drive experiences, reduce that friction for our customers and really help drive sales as well for our partners. It's a big deal when you're at point of sale and your card is declining because it's been flagged for fraud, for example. So if we can preempt that horrible customer experience, perhaps the loss in the sale for our partner, you've made a big difference in that moment.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So for an issuer or whoever in this audience might be considering their first experience with AI or refocusing it, what would your advice be? What should their priorities be based on your experience?
Bess Healy: (
Data, you've got to understand and be able to harness your data for sure, that is a big deal. Another aspect is taking advantage of the moments, the inflection points in your journey to make the investments. I alluded earlier to Synchrony's IPO, since that time we've made substantial investments, 5 billion with a focus on modern technologies, including cloud and API, and being able to better harness our data over time. That doesn't look the same for Synchrony as it might for those of you with us today, but you have to be able to recognize those moments, those inflection points, where you can take advantage of those opportunities and make the investments and build capabilities that will scale for the enterprise, but also matter to the customer and the partner.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So with the kind of like that premise or the sci-fi premise of AI and robot people is the idea that maybe they would replace human workers, but you had mentioned, at some point the, kind of the opposite issue of the great resignation affecting just the talent that's needed to build this strategy. Can you talk a bit about that and just what the current job market means for any kind of AI development, that sort of thing?
Bess Healy: (
We don't think that, AI is gonna replace humans. We think Synchrony is going to need humans. We want to meet our customers where they want to be met. We want to drive everyday digital first experience.
Bess Healy: (
I do think it's important to note though, that there is a war on talent in the AI skill sets perspective. Synchrony competes like every other, business and bank out there that's in this space. We've taken the approach that we wanna be a place where folks/people want to work. We drive a flexible and open working environment. We've made that commitment almost since the beginning of the pandemic. We all were forced to a very short time, move our workforces home, but Synchrony is committed to that flexibility for the long term. We want to be that employer of choice, huge focus around diversity and inclusion, which by the way, in the AI space, is also something worthy to talk about, because we wanna be responsible in our use in employment for artificial intelligence. So, it's really important to focus on the right culture, right flexibility, for attracting and also retaining really strong employees to help us drive the strategy and execute on our targets and our goals.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So talking about not just the great resignation, but a lot of the trends that have taken place over the past couple of years that have changed the way that, consumers and businesses interact. How have you seen that materialized just in your own customer interactions or how those customers or the fraudsters interact with AI?
Bess Healy: (
We all have seen a similar drive, more to digital and contactless. You heard that in the previous session as well. It's about being flexible and agile in our way of delivering those capabilities and being responsive to customers. That means we're also helping our partners be responsive to customers demands and needs. There's endless opportunities to do that. The customer's demands are changing everyday, but when you have the architecture in place, you're able to harness your data, leverage your partnerships. You can build scalable products that meet the customers where they're at across those channels. You can do so in a responsible way that really helps us all still be able to look each other in the mirror. We're not talking to your point about, any Darth Vader's or anything along those lines here. So I do think we have no finish lines. We're always evolving and we're always listening both to the customer as well as our partners. If the day we stop, it's not a good picture. We all have to stay ahead of those things.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So I have another question about Sydney. You mentioned that Sydney changes and evolves as the customer does. With everything that's been going on during the pandemic and all the pressures that your partners and their customers are under, how has Sydney or any of your other application of AI, has adapted and changed in response?
Bess Healy: (
When you're leveraging machine learning and you're harnessing the data it's adapting and changing, regularly. So whether you're leveraging data to understand customer sentiment, to help drive overall customer base improvements, or whether you're leveraging those capabilities in a digital channel via a chat, or whether it's just feedback that you get through the various channels, we're always looking to harness that data to help our partners be more successful. Can we drive more insights from a partner perspective and helping them drive sales, or can we drive again that more digital first experience and find new opportunities to reduce cycle time, to de-friction the process in any way possible. Those are constant searches and destroys for us. We really wanna to reduce those points of friction.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Search and destroy just like Darth Vader. Now we're looking ahead to this kind of hybrid lifestyle where I listen with the pandemic. I was so isolated. I got rid of my dining room table because I wasn't having people over. And now all of a sudden I need a dining room table again. So, just as an indicator, for most people, the normal example would be, 'Oh I'm back at the office, but that's boring, for me it's a dining room.' So as we see more people kind of like resume old habits and just maybe interact in a way that they had put on hold previously. How does your technology, how does AI kind of, what do you see as the demands that will be put on there? Do a lot of how it's adapted over the course of the pandemic? Does it need to backtrack? Is there, this kind of like mix uncertainty, throwing different data variables into things?
Bess Healy: (
Well, this is why it's so important to always stay fresh and continuously feed the data and the information in so that you can detect those shifts, behavior, patterns and demands from a customer standpoint, or even from a partner perspective. So leveraging partners data, leveraging Synchrony's 90 year old startup, which is actually true because we have this great ability of having 90 years of history, and all of those active cardholders and so forth. But when you're leveraging AI to drive record results, it's a big deal and it means you can't stop listening. You're evolving and growing everyday, and you're harnessing the data to help you do that. You're harnessing new capabilities, new technologies on the horizon to do that. So it's important that we can't be still. It's not like you put out a model and it's one and done, for example. We have to continue to leverage the data to evolve with the partner, to evolve with the customer.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Are there any other pain points or points of friction in the customer experience where AI can be helpful that we haven't discussed yet?
Bess Healy: (
About the customer experience, we're thinking about the full life-cycle from before they get online to that digital property or walk in store, if it's brick and mortar all the way through to the very end of the scale of things. Potentially there's some areas in the later stages of the customer life cycle that will uncover over time. They are for us in large part helping the customer journey in the apply process and in the process where they're, literally applying for credit, where they're looking to make that purchase, that authorization or looking to serve do their account management and service their account over time. We're actually leveraging the data to point as to where we should be looking as well. So whether it's customer's perspective and the feedback that we get there, or whether it's partner feedback, leveraging the data to know where the next new opportunity and new frontier are at the forefront of our drivers.
Daniel Wolfe: (
So where do you see this technology going in the near future or the distant future?
Bess Healy: (
Well, distance is hard. Distance is very hard to predict.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Let's say 10 years near distance.
Bess Healy: (
When you think about the financial industry, we'll get more and more mature in our leverage and harnessing of the data. Whether you're a FinTech, you don't have as many as large of a customer base or as much data. If you're a large bank, you've got in most cases that data you've got that customer base and then the two, the friction and the opportunity by the way in the two, because we believe that, we can partner with FinTech as we can with other products and capabilities, etc. But we have the opportunity to get more maturation in our partnership with our regulators, we have the opportunity to mature our programs. I still think we have a lot to learn and grow into in the overall responsibility aspects. Having a diverse workforce and engagement in how we think about AI is also key, to helping us make sure that we are sustaining really responsible. AI practices in all of the products and services and capabilities that we offer.
Daniel Wolfe: (
All this might be a good time to check for questions. If anybody in the audience has questions, there should be a mic going around. See if you don't have questions, I'm gonna ask her about Sydney's dog again. So your questions are definitely cooler than my questions. I got a small laugh from that. Everything's been like virtual. I could just imagine like the laugh track in my head whenever I've done these, but now it's like reality is setting in and now I can tell how good my jokes are. And so waffles is a rescue dog?
Bess Healy: (
Waffles is a Jack Russell terrier and waffles loves to go shopping. So one of the things that we do is we make a big deal out of Sydney and everything we do, because we want our customers and our employees to identify with her. So we've done things like get to know Sydney week. We did a big birthday bash for waffles and so there's just a number of things that you can do when you think about humanizing those AI capabilities, to really help make the connection that you want to. Sydney is also oftentimes the frontline to our customers on a daily 17 million expected interactions this year. Making her more connected and feel real, actually matters and helps with those connections.
Daniel Wolfe: (
I also have in my notes that Sydney is engaged.
Bess Healy: (
I need to check on that.
Daniel Wolfe: (
There was another chatbot, I had a similar character sheet for, from a credit union that I'd written about. The name escapes me, but it was named Maggie. I don't remember if Maggie was a pet owner. I do remember Maggie was divorced and the level of detail they put into this as a view is just like, it's striking, like real. Like this is the sort of person that if you're going into a retail store everyday, or like, coffee shop or what have you would get to know this person in that same way. You would know the relationship status, the age, approximate, what have you and it strikes me that this is the level of humanizing that you want.
Bess Healy: (
It's true, but that's the level of connection that you wanna make with customers. You want customers to feel sticky with you and so when a customer interacts with a chat bot versus regular chat versus on the phone with us, versus, the written correspondence method. You want them to feel the empathy. The caring aspect of Synchrony is a core value. We expect that those capabilities and the heart, the empathy of what we see as a true value is conveyed through Sydney. Just like if you're on the phone with one of our associates.
Daniel Wolfe: (
It also strikes me that perhaps like the most common digital assistant that everybody knows is Alexa. I don't know Alexa's relationship status, age, whether Alexa likes pets. I know Alexa knows all of that about me. So it's a very one sided relationship. Alexa's a very good listener and I am not that's the lesson here. Do we have any questions?
Speaker 4: (
Have you thought about how personal Sydney gets? Have you thought about doing on an individual basis and having Sydney kind of mirror that person's life, gathering data from maybe transactions or what not to make it personal?
Bess Healy: (
We are constantly ideating. We've not made gone down that path yet, but certainly you could imagine that Sydney might take on any number of forms as you think about an avatar, being animated over time, taking on different personas. Is that a possibility? Yes, it's not, I would say in our immediate future, but we'll continue to see what the data shows us and we'll wanna make sure that Sydney continues to reflect the core values of Synchrony.
Speaker 4: (
I'm wondering if the data would like, if someone wants someone that personal for Sydney. If the data would support that, if that would help the customer experience?
Bess Healy: (
Data is absolutely one of the key drivers that we would use to influence those kinds of decisions.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Any other audience questions, doesn't have to be about Sydney, could be about waffles.
Bess Healy: (
Harnessing AI is something we should all be doing. As you think about your strategy, you have to think not just about the AI technologies themselves, but also how you employ and leverage and harness the data. You have to think about those things in concert. When you do that with a customer at the center of your experience it will be magical.
Daniel Wolfe: (
Thank you very much.
Desiree Wolfe: (
I want you to know that I heard many times harnessing the data is key and that is your foundational step and whether it is taking advantage of the inflection points or continuously learning, never stopping. That was great insights and I valued from that. So thank you.
Daniel Wolfe: (
You also heard waffles.
Desiree Wolfe: (
Well, the other thing I'm gonna ask you is, Sydney's always learning and she's 27. Does she stay 27?
Bess Healy: (
No she doesn't. She will age some.
Desiree Wolfe: (
But she's not aging per year, coz she's been around for like a while.
Bess Healy: (
No, the data drives the process for us.
Desiree Wolfe: (
Because that's a very human trait. I'm not one of those people, but I know many females who don't age chronologically every 12 months. So it sounds like Sydney has that trait. Thank you all very much.