Mastercard Makes Commerce More Conversational with Launch of Chatbots for Banks and Merchants
October 25 2016 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Chatbots to Provide Partners with New Ways
to Engage and Deliver Compelling, Personalized Experiences to
Consumers; Mastercard Bot for Banks will be First Available on
Facebook Messenger
Today at Money 20/20, Mastercard announced its plans to launch
artificial intelligence (AI) bots that allow consumers to transact,
manage finances, and shop via messaging platforms.
According to research firm Gartner, nearly $2 billion in online
sales will be performed exclusively through mobile digital
assistants by the end of 2016.1 Mastercard is developing bots for
both its merchant and bank partners, which will use chat, messaging
and natural language interfaces to communicate with consumers. With
the Mastercard bots, partners can have a true dialogue with
consumers and provide personalized service, seamless user
experience and contextual offers and rewards.
Mastercard Bot for Banks
Mastercard KAI, the Mastercard bot for banks, will seamlessly
extend Mastercard services to customers on messaging platforms and
make financial information and decisions part of consumers’
everyday lives. In this testing phase on Messenger, Mastercard is
partnering with Kasisto, the company that created KAI Banking, the
conversational artificial intelligence (AI) platform, to power
branded virtual assistants and smart bots for financial services
and is a current participant in the Mastercard Start Path Global
program.
Mastercard KAI is powered by KAI Banking’s deep knowledge in
financial services and conversational AI. It can fulfill customer
requests and solve problems, enabling financial institutions to
create entirely new consumer experiences – ones that are as easy
and natural as texting a friend. Starting early next year,
consumers based in the United States can ask the bot questions
about their accounts, review purchase history, monitor spending
levels, learn about Mastercard cardholder benefits, receive
contextual offers through integration with Mastercard Priceless
experiences, and get help with financial literacy.
“We’re excited to partner with Mastercard to help drive
conversational commerce and engage with consumers where they spend
their digital lives – on messaging platforms,” said Zor Gorelov,
CEO and co-founder, Kasisto. “This bot enables entirely new
experiences, bringing Mastercard benefits and offers to consumers
with human-like conversations that are personal and contextual.
We’re powering conversational commerce, anytime, anywhere – just as
consumers have come to expect.”
Currently in pilot testing on Messenger, Mastercard KAI will
eventually roll out to the 1 billion people who use Messenger every
month.
Mastercard Bot for Merchants
With the Mastercard bot for merchants, consumers will be able to
shop and transact on messaging platforms and then check out with
the Masterpass global digital payment
service. Developed by Mastercard Labs, the bot enables
consumers to start a simple conversation with a merchant and
complete a transaction without opening their wallets, visiting the
merchant’s app or waiting in line. The bot works across multiple
verticals – from airlines to retail – and runs on various messaging
platforms, making commerce more frictionless than ever before.
To accelerate development of conversational commerce among
merchant partners, Mastercard plans to open up its experimental Bot
Commerce API on Mastercard Developers platform later this year.
Merchants can use this API in a sandbox to begin testing chatbots
powered by Masterpass.
“At Mastercard, we believe that AI-driven conversations between
companies and their customers can drive better customer experiences
in places and platforms that consumers are already engaging in.,”
said Kiki Del Valle, senior vice president, Commerce for Every
Device, Mastercard. “Mastercard Labs has been testing integration
of key Mastercard products and services within different messaging
platforms and we’re thrilled to test Mastercard KAI on Messenger
first. We will keep moving this test-and-learn approach to the next
phase by developing chatbots that are naturally ingrained into a
consumer’s daily life and helps our partners stimulate business
interactions that are more conversational.”
About Mastercard
Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a
technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the
world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers,
financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in
more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and
solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping,
traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more
secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on
Twitter @MastercardNews, join the discussion on
the Beyond the Transaction
Blog and subscribe for the latest news on
the Engagement Bureau.
About Kasisto:
Kasisto was founded in 2013 with the vision of enabling
companies to engage and transact with their customers through
intelligent conversations, anytime, anywhere. Kasisto’s
conversational AI platform, KAI, offers enterprises a comprehensive
AI technology stack combined with industry-specific domain
expertise to make bots and virtual assistants well versed in the
businesses they serve. As an SRI International spin-off, Kasisto
leverages decades of research and development in artificial
intelligence. KAI Banking enables financial institutions to add
virtual assistants and smart bots to their mobile apps and leading
messaging platforms. With an emphasis on great user experience,
KAI-powered virtual assistants and smart bots are easy to
implement, customize and maintain. For more information visit
www.kasisto.com and follow @kasistoinc on Twitter.
1 Gartner report "Predicts 2015: Digital Marketers Will Monetize
Disruptive Forces" by Jennifer S. Beck, Mike McGuire, Adam Sarner,
Andrew Frank, Jennifer Polk and Jake Sorofman.
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MastercardChaiti Sen, 917.408.2912chaiti.sen@mastercard.com
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