From left to right, Ajit Chawla (Birlasoft), Kristin Deegan (Wells Fargo), Kader Sakkaria (BMO Harris Bank) and Neha Aggarwal (Birlasoft) participate on an AI session at annual BCX Summit. The banking industry lately has pointed to Bank of America's virtual financial assistant Erica as a prime example of how financial institutions can introduce AI concepts to everyday consumers through digital banking experiences. The concept of virtual assistants has become more commonplace thanks to the proliferation of Amazon Echo devices in households across the U.S. and banks stand to benefit from this growing trend. BofA introduced Erica at a time when their customers were likely already familiar with an AI-driven virtual assistant, which probably bolstered interaction in the first few months of its availability. The bank earlier this month revealed more than 3 million mobile banking users interact with Erica, up a lofty 200 percent (or 2 million users) since the end of June.