Commercial International Bank of Egypt (CIB) is Egypt’s leading private-sector bank. It is an award-winning institution dedicated to creating outstanding stakeholder value and providing superior customer service solutions to a broad range of clients. With a well-established network of 207 branches and banking units and a workforce comprising 6,900 employees, CIB provides tailored, client-centric services to clients in the corporate, commercial, retail, wealth, and SME spheres, all while working to deliver the most streamlined, efficient banking service offering in the Egyptian market.
In 2019, CIB became the first bank in Egypt to introduce an AI chatbot called Zaki, based on Oracle’s Digital Assistant. Zaki is the first of its kind in the Egyptian banking industry, using advanced artificial intelligence to assist customers, gather key data, and help CIB revolutionize digital banking as it stands today.
The initial version helped with general inquiries and products announcements but quickly evolved to assist with a wide array of customer and non-customer needs. Supporting both English and colloquial Arabic, Zaki uses artificial intelligence to provide information about the bank’s products and latest offers, find the nearest ATM or branch, and answer over one thousand FAQs. Users can choose from a menu of options or engage with Zaki using ODA’s conversational experience (Zaki can speak out loud it’s replies in English and Arabic).
As a result of all of Zaki’s hard work, CIB was able to increase customer satisfaction an average of 120% based on customer surveys submitted to the bot. In addition, more than 40,000 new digital leads were generated in the first year, with an 180% increase in efficiency of social media teams. Perhaps most interestingly, ODA has offloaded from customer service agents 75% of the questions they previously had to answer live.
Zaki meets the user where they are, offering interfaces on both CIB’s website as well as Facebook Messenger, with plans to expand to additional avenues soon. Zaki even further engages the use by changing its avatar appearance to represent current events, such as wearing a mask during the COVID pandemic or a jersey to support Egypt’s sports teams.
An important digital milestone that has the potential to be a key channel for data supported by machine learning, Zaki delivers a customer-centric solution with innovative touch points. With the investment in artificial intelligent chatbot technology, CIB is able to demonstrate its dynamic business model and commitment to fully integrating superior technology into its products and services allow it to maintain its market leadership and generate mounting value.
