SBI launches chatbot to help customers in banking activities

The chat assistant, known as SBI Intelligent Assistant, or SIA, will help customers with everyday banking tasks just like a bank representative, the company said in a statement.

"SIA is a revolution in the banking industry. It is set to disrupt the way banks and customers interact," Payjo founder and CEO Srinivas Njay said.

SIA has been set up to handle nearly 10,000 enquiries per second, or 864 million in a day, which is nearly 25 per cent of the queries processed by Google every day.

"SIA will enhance customer service several notches above. Payjo's expertise in the conversational banking domain helped us build SIA as a superior chatbot in the global banking space.

"We look forward to taking SIA and simplifying the customer's lives on multiple customer interaction platforms in partnership with Payjo," SBI chief technology officer Shiv Kumar Bhasin said.

With SIA, the bank will reduce significant operational expenditure over time.

Currently, SIA can address enquiries on banking products and services.

It is trained with a large set of knowledge and is adept at answering frequently asked questions as well.