AI agents - your virtual assistants who can bank, trade and shop for you

Al-powered agents that can not only make day-to-day decisions for us, but even execute them, are already here. And they are getting better.

- Vikram Khanna

Recently, for the first time, I used an artificial intelligence (AI) banking agent in a demo. It was like my virtual "man Friday" at the bank that could do whatever I told it to do. It could not only answer my questions like a chatbot but even take action, similar to what a bank officer would do. For example, it could advise on the best savings plan to meet my retirement goals, explain what documents I would need to get a loan, process my loan application, cancel my lost credit card and issue a replacement. A chatbot, which most banks now use, cannot do any of this. I would have to contact a human customer service representative except that she would not be working 24 X 7 X 365, but my AI banking agent would.

The demo agent for my bank was set up using software created by the company Salesforce called "Agentforce". A software engineer from Salesforce showed me how it was done. The bank would have to specify what its agents can do, what knowledge they can access (presumably all the knowledge and data that the bank has on its customers); through what channels it should work through text or voice, or both, as well as online and mobile - and what it should not do - for example, maybe the bank decides it should not be able to advise on investment products.

Once set up with all the guardrails in place (which was already done in the demo setup), the banking agent gets down to work. I want to report my lost credit card and have it replaced. I log into the bank's website and click on "Your banking agent".

The conversation, in writing, goes do the necessary due diligence something like this: Agent: Hello Vikram, I'm your banking agent and my name is Eunice. How can I help? Me: I've lost my credit card and need a replacement.