Yes, many fintech companies and startups in Nigeria are leveraging the advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) for more efficient financial operations because the innovative technology is transforming the finance industry by enhancing personalized banking services, improving fraud detection and prevention, automating customer service, scoring creditworthiness and loan approvals and more.
1. AI helps in fraud detection and prevention
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a specific financial algorithm that’s very helpful in detecting unusual patterns and routines in transactions. Due to this, many financial institutions in Nigeria use it as a fraud detention and prevention tool, helping them to fight fraud and related acts.
This actually works in the sense that AI can identify suspicious activity in real-time while analyzing large amount of data. In real time, human cannot be quick as AI to detect suspicious activity in big data. So AI is automated in this aspect, making it more efficient than humans to preventing financial crimes like money laundering and unauthorized access.
2. AI helps personalized banking services
With AI, banks can offer more suited or personalized services to their customers. Just like open banking where banks access and use their customers data and information to provide personalized services to them and other customers, AI models analyze customer data to recommend financial products such as loans, savings plans, and insurance that fit an individual’s specific needs.
So, Nigeria banks are adopting this technology because it helps in improving customer satisfaction and loyalty and also helps recommend more potential customers when they get personalized advertisement that can solve their problems.
3. AI helps in automating customer service
Another segment of AI is chatbot. If you’ve noticed, many chat bots and virtual assistants you can meet on any app or platform are driven by AI technology. That’s to say, AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants are transforming customer support in many industries including the finance industry.
These AI-driven chat bots and virtual assistants can handle a wide range of queries, from simple balance checks to more complex tasks like troubleshooting account issues and inter-banks funds transfers. A typical example of chatbot implemented by Nigerian bank is UBA’s LEO. LEO provides immediate responses to UBA customers without the need for human intervention.
The most amazing part of it is that these chatbot and virtual assistants can be used at the most convenient platforms where people spend most their internet time on - social media. UBA LEO is available on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
4. AI helps in rating credit score and deciding loan approval
Artificial Intelligence is used by fintech startups and online lending platforms to streamline and analyze loan approval process for borrowers.
AI works in this segment in the sense that it’ll analyze and record alternative data sources such as transaction history, social media activity, loan history on other lenders and other digital footprints to rate a potential borrower creditworthiness.
Hence, Nigeria online lending platforms and fintech startups use AI to rate their customers creditworthiness because it can assess creditworthiness more accurately, particularly for individuals without traditional credit histories. This has the potential to expand financial access to a wider population.
You see all these amazing innovations and developments of AI are not only making banking more efficient but also helping to increase financial inclusion by making services accessible to more people, including the unbanked and underbanked populations.
The AI’s role in automating and optimizing these processes is expected to continue growing, driving further innovations in Nigeria’s financial sector.
