Latin lovers fonYou and Claro reveal AI-driven microfinance
fonYou is working with fellow telco Claro in Ecuador and Central America to offer artificial intelligence (AI)-powered offerings to the microfinance market.
“The right offer to the right customer at the right time”
Claro Central America covers Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, which combined with Claro Ecuador adds up to 24 million customers.
According to the pair, mobile customers in Ecuador and Central America largely rely on prepaid voice and data bundles, “leading to millions of failed attempted voice or data sessions when their credit has run out”.
fonYou explains that its iCarrier identifies customer-originated calls with insufficient credit to deliver an offer in real-time. This means that customers can complete calls by means of collect calls, financed micro-bundles, or credit card top-ups.
Fernando Núñez Mendoza, CEO of fonYou, says: “Our iCarrier platform combines advanced analytics, machine learning and state-of-the-art cloud tools that allow Claro to deliver the right offer to the right customer at the right time.”
Since launch, iCarrier has been processing millions of voice calls originated by Claro’s customers via its AI platform.
It analyses the call context such as who is being called, and time of day – as well as past purchasing behaviour to assess risk and determine if an offer should be made. It also predicts the expected response to all available options to determine the most suitable product that should be offered, all of which is a fully automated process.
The duo add that they are currently also working on a roadmap to digitise and automate the distribution of products and services in the region through additional revenue-generating services including financed calls or voice top-ups.
