Did you know that over 70% of fintech users now rely on 3-4 financial apps to manage their money, seamlessly toggling between platforms that best meet their needs? Customers today are as comfortable opening accounts with new fintech companies as they are with national banks—indicating a shrinking trust gap between traditional and emerging financial services. But how can you ensure that your platform remains your customers' top choice six months from now, or even tomorrow?
As fintech adoption grows, so do users' expectations for smooth, intuitive experiences. But as with any tech product, users still face pain points along the way—lengthy onboarding, payment failures, lack of personalization, and security concerns—that can erode trust and loyalty. What truly matters is how you handle these challenges.
Enter AI agents. These intelligent tools have consistently proven effective in overcoming these pain points, helping fintech companies retain users by delivering smoother, more personalized experiences at every touchpoint. Let’s walk through the user journey and explore how AI agents can step in to address common issues while improving customer satisfaction.
Step 1: Onboarding Process
The first crucial touchpoint is when a customer decides to open an account or order a card with your company. However, onboarding is often fraught with obstacles—lengthy forms, document submissions, and waiting for approval—that deter users from completing sign-ups. Overwhelmed by the complexity, users may feel lost or unsure of the next steps.
AI agents shine here by breaking down this tedious process into bite-sized goals. With a layer of GenAI, AI can guide users through document submissions, answer real-time queries, and proactively remind them to complete missing information. Think of it as having your best onboarding agent sitting right across from the customer, helping them through the process. Unlike rigid forms, AI agents can fill out data using cues from users' interactions, eliminating redundancies, speeding up the process, and reducing friction.
Example: AI can automatically verify identification documents, flag errors in real-time, and streamline form-filling using previously collected data, making onboarding fast, smooth, and user-friendly. We have written more on this topic on our blog here!
Step 2: Day-to-Day Usage
Once the user is onboarded, the real work begins. Day-to-day experiences must be seamless—users won’t applaud every successful payment, but they will certainly sound the alarm on social media over failures. Ensuring that users can easily navigate your platform, access transaction histories, and explore product offerings is crucial, all while delivering a personalized experience that fits their needs.
AI agents excel in personalization. They can pull up the user's transaction/ purchase history within seconds and engage in deeply contextual conversations as if they’ve always been the user's personal assistant through the spending journey. By analyzing spending patterns, AI can identify potential savings opportunities and recommend financial products tailored to users' habits. Instead of navigating complex interfaces, users can simply ask the AI for specific information—like their transaction history or account balance—making interactions more intuitive and engaging.
Example: Imagine an AI-driven search bar that has learned a user’s preferences. It will offer up exactly what the user needs without endless searching through menus.
Step 3: Making Transactions and Payments
When it comes to payments, there’s no room for error. Few things frustrate users more than seeing their hard-earned money stuck in limbo due to a failed transaction. Payment failures often lead to long resolution times, which cause anxiety and a lack of trust in the platform.
AI agents can step in immediately. They can validate payment statuses in real-time, retry failed transactions, and offer users clear next steps for resolution. AI can even detect issues before they arise—like insufficient funds or expired payment methods—and notify users proactively to prevent failed transactions from happening in the first place.
Example: If a payment fails due to insufficient funds, an AI agent can instantly notify the user, offer to retry at a later time when funds are available, or suggest alternative payment methods.
💡In fact at Fini we have designed a product feature called Flows to drive highly contextual conversations while handling sensitive information. Our goal was 100% accuracy for the critical business processes like payment failures, leaving nothing to second chances.
The high-stakes instances are routed through predefined process flows, managing necessary inputs from the system backends and end-user then routing them through set personalized channels, ensuring they are managed with the utmost care and precision. This enabled one of client DistroKid to handle sensitive topics such as payment withdrawal requests or time sensitive metadata edit requests with increased speed and accuracy.
We have captures this in detail in our blog here
Step 4: Customer Support and Problem Resolution
They say the chain is only as strong as the weakest link and more often than not customer support is the weakest link in many businesses. Users don’t want to endure long wait times for support, nor do they want to repeat their issues multiple times. This is a major cause of drop-offs and frustration.
AI agents offer a transformative solution by providing 24/7 support that can handle a wide variety of queries, significantly reducing wait times. They retain context throughout conversations, meaning users won’t have to repeat themselves. AI agents remember past interactions, payment history, and the specific nature of the problem, ensuring that issues are resolved quickly and smoothly.
✨ In fact with Fini you do this in customers' native languages to ensure excellent customer satisfaction. According to Common Sense Advisory, 76% of customers find comfort to operate products and services in their native language. Moreover, 40% of consumers feel urged to not engage with a web page/ agent in other languages, highlighting the importance of multilingual support.
Step 5: Fraud Prevention and Security
Security is a paramount concern for fintech users. The Fintech Effect Report revealed that 62% of consumers expect AI to play a key role in fraud detection and prevention. As augmented reality blurs the line between real and virtual threats, users need assurance that their accounts are safe, especially during larger transactions.
AI agents are adept at spotting potential fraud. By continuously monitoring activity in real-time, they can detect unusual patterns, flag suspicious transactions, and take immediate protective measures like freezing an account or blocking a transaction.
Example: AI agents can notify users the moment suspicious activity is detected, guiding them through steps to secure their account and verify transactions.
Conclusion: AI Agents as the Key to Retaining Fintech Users
By strategically integrating AI agents at key stages of the customer journey, fintech companies can significantly enhance user retention. From providing personalized financial advice and resolving payment failures in real time to offering round-the-clock support, AI-driven solutions improve user experience by addressing pain points quickly, effectively, and empathetically. For fintech companies, AI agents are more than just a tool for efficiency—they are a vital strategy for building long-term customer loyalty in an increasingly competitive market.
Important Note: Security and Compliance
Handling financial data requires strict adherence to security and compliance standards. It is crucial to select your AI partner carefully. For more information on choosing the right AI partner, refer to our blog.
Integration Made Easy
Integrating an AI agent into your support ecosystem is straightforward. We wanted to list down step-by-step how easy it is to integrate an AI agent in your support ecosystem. We are explaining this for Zendesk but feel free to block a 30 mins demo with us to learn about your specific tools. Trust me this 30 min is nothing but an investment in saving countless hours later 🙂
Implementing AI in your payment handling flows not only streamlines operations but also meets the growing expectations of tech-savvy consumers for quick and efficient service. For more details on how AI can transform financial services, get in touch with us with the below mentioned options!!
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
