MIT Design Lab X Bank Bradesco
OVERVIEW
The project is a collaboration between MIT Design Lab and Bank Bradesco in Brazil, and it addresses a general understanding the state of the art technologies in the Artificial Intelligence systems, such as machine learning and natural language processing and others. It focuses on virtual agents and their application to financial services aiming to envision how virtual agents can improve the relationship between banks and their customers.
GOAL
Reimagine virtual agent and envision future financial experience impacted by AI
To develop a long-term strategy starting from the development of a virtual agent able to deliver a customized experience and envisioning the application of AI technologies within Bradesco both internally to the organization and in relation to the customers.
OUTCOME
Created a holistic experience for the future implementation of the conversational agent powered by AI from the financial aspect, applied in everyday life scenarios.
ROLE
- Collaborated in brainstorming sessions to Ideate seed ideas
for various case scenarios with exploring proximate fields besides banking.
- Produced Service Offer map, Concept Clustering and Ecosystem
diagram to visualize potential deployable concepts.
- Owned the creation of all the digital interfaces and storyboards
for each scenario for the final deliverable.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
- Collaborated with two design researchers on conducting secondary research on AI research trends and existing applications and research on conversational agents.
- Followed by envisioning the context of what factors influence the financial section in Brazil and what will change in 10 years from now.
- Defined the user target which is categorized by class ( A,B,C,D,E) and tried to understand their behaviors, expectations, influences, concerns and preconceptions. As well as listed different user input methods
- Defined the roles of virtual agents and how these roles will evolve overtime and what distinctive features would be offered and the different feedback methodologies.
- Defined the present and future capabilities of the virtual agent and determined the different virtual agent processes, where the virtual agent can serve as an Actuator, Generator, Comprehender, Learner and a Collector.
- Mapped the contiguity of different industry sectors and AI technologies in respect to the financial equilibrium of users and evaluated what has the most weight on the financial resources and impact on budgeting of the different user profiles
- Answered the following questions, that helped us build the different use case scenarios:
Skill- What can it do in practice?
Intuition- Can it deliver relevant content?
Understanding- Can it comprehend context?
Character- Does it express an attitude?
Empathy- Does it understand moods?
Intelligence- Does it learn from experience?
Pro-activity- Is it autonomous in behavior?
Personality- Does it have characteristic patterns of thinking?
PROCESS
IDEATION
After analyzing the input from Bradesco on different parts of the presented problem, I summarized an overall vision of our proposed AI Virtual Conversational Agent (BIA):
• Provide information
• Give financial advice
• Coach budget management
Design Concepts Generating and Clustering
I mapped and visualized all the generated seed concepts that were discussed and proposed in a week long ideation session that where conducted internally and externally with the client.
PROCESS
DESIGN CONCEPTS
Personal Advisor - Class A, B
Provides holistic financial consultancy that aims to simplify users’ daily life, helping users with the decision making process in order to lower their cognitive effort, and support them in taking financial decisions.
Budget Partner - Class C
Serves as a Personal Financial Manager nudging users to take the right decisions about their spending and saving habits. Enable users to settle their financial stability and reach their milestones.
Bailout Buddy - Class E
A free service that sends useful notifications and educational materials about budget management that are relevant to users’ needs. The aim is to bring Bradesco closer to lower income classes and bring awareness to this income group.
Risk Fella - Insurance customers
An insurance agent that exploits the data from the customers’ transaction/purchase list to understand if any of the high-value purchases need to be insured.
Account Guardian - All customers
A set of AI based services to warrant the safety of users’ bank account and provide an extra layer of security to the users in a smoother and more friendly procedures.
USE CASES
I partnered with the design researcher to build different use cases which covers multi design concepts and applied them to different industry sectors from the financial equilibrium of users.
As the sole UX Designer I owned the creation all the use case scenarios and interface solutions to visualize the experience of BIA:
HOME
BIA can help home buyers not only in reaching their goal in financial term but also supporting them during the process of buying and maintaining their house.
BIA-Home Features:
Smart Home Butler
IOT kit to prevent damages, it monitors consumptions and detect fire, gas and water leaks. Smart Home Butler manages the house for the best comfort and energetic efficiency, with the consideration of the financial situation of the user and learns from users routine.
SAFETY
BIA can become the warrant for systems and services people seek to protect what is valuable: families, home, themselves and their Belongings. once they achieve a satisfactory quality of life and meet their basic needs.
BIA-Safety Features:
Connected Patrol
Home security systems and installation services provider, for properties and residents. The system can detect intrusions and sends alerts to owners when the house is empty. It also monitors the mobility of residents, notifying family members that other family got home safely.
Lucky Charm
Wearable Devices provide the feeling of protection people need by serving as an alarm in case of life-threatening situations or an object tracker in case of theft and robberies.
HEALTHCARE
While in Brazil the public healthcare system is originally free, BIA can help in shifting the attention to prevention and lifestyle and offering policies which safeguard people’s health and not only their finances.
BIA-Health Features:
Wellness Advisor
A virtual coach that allows users to track their biometrics values, exercise routines and eating habits in order to monitor their progress in achieving wellness goals. Wellness Advisor provides customized plan and suggests classes, check-ups, or health products accordingly.
Personalized Care
Tailored healthcare AI Driven plans, that analyze users’ medical history as well as lifestyle habits to suggest what periodic check-ups are needed. With the ability to initially assess users’ symptoms and connects them immediately with the right specialists in the local area.
EDUCATION
BIA would drive the initiative of investing in human capital, and encouraging people to acquire the background needed to make better life choices and financial decisions.
BIA-Education Feature:
Future Catcher
A virtual advisor that analyzes school records submitted by the user, and the ability to select students that most likely will perform well and offer them a study loan with close to 0 interest rate.
Future Catcher will also guide them in choosing the educational career matching their capabilities and personal aspirations in respect to the future development of the labour market.
IMPACT
Prototyping & Storytelling
We presented our use case scenarios using the digital interfaces that I have created and to convey the full user journey, I partnered with a videographer and created a storytelling video (Under NDA) of the different cases, as these proposed concepts are based on being deployed 10 years from now.
Early phase deployment
Project is under deployment in Brazil for the phase of today’s scenarios.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYbOp-2XJPg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3brZzuC5Ug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkIp8K9xv-k