Are You My Banker, or a Computer?

Personal touch: "If you have a friend you've known for a long time and they know things about you that the general public doesn't know you'll keep them around in your life for a long time," USAA's Patrick Kelly says in describing the building of so-called digital empathy. "The same is true of your [financial] institution." USAA is using virtual agents, personalization and artificial intelligence to forge what it calls a "digital empathy" with its members – conversations that feel human and personal, with an understanding of each customer's behavior, likes and dislikes built in. If empathy – the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions – sounds like a tall order for a financial services company that almost never interacts with customers in person, it is. But it's a worthwhile goal for USAA and would be a smart objective for any financial institution.