Absa AI automates account switching in South Africa
Absa is implementing artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers change banks in South Africa.
AI for account switching
According to Absa’s CIO Jacques Barkhuizen, this is a “world first” and any customer from any bank in South Africa can go to the app and get this feature.
He says the process takes under seven minutes, and it will automatically change all of the customer’s beneficiaries from the external bank to Absa.
The process is fully automated, “with key elements on the back driven by AI”.
It is understood that this service is only available for retail customers.
Absa was previously Barclays Africa. Its chat banking service also recently introduced Whatsapp messaging.
So, as a private ABSA (Trust Bank) customer for 32 years, will this be expanded to allow me to leave ABSA in 7 minutes – a bit like the European banking switch services?
Will be the first in line to beta the feature.
Is this live already? I have looked for it but cant find it.
Where would they get the data from for all the other banks? That would imply EU PSD2 type agreements but these are not at play in SA?