Mobile Payments Users Take Heart as Bank of America’s Erica Gets New Features
Virtual assistants have done some exciting things so far, to the point where even South Park took on an episode featuring a world without Siri and Alexa. Let’s just say that Jim-Bob and Darryl didn’t work out so well. That aside, the virtual assistant is still a big deal, and Bank of America recently dropped word our way about upgrades it made to the Erica system, upgrades that should give Erica a lot of new firepower in the field.
Thanks to the upgrades, Erica now has access to several new tools, including the Spend Path system, a snapshot of monthly spending released weekly, allowing users to better track their outgoing cash and make adjustments to reflect their budget accordingly. The FICO Score Tracker does what the name suggests, tracking month-to-month FICO score changes.
A Subscription Monitor allows people to see what they’re paying to subscribe to, and potentially save a few bucks cutting out things they don’t want or need any more. Finally, new credit card bill reminders keep people apprised of bills that need to be paid.
Bank of America’s head of consumer, small business and wealth management technology Aditya Bhasin noted “Our AI engine was built to evolve with our clients. Since the launch, we’ve integrated more than 200,000 different ways for clients to ask financial questions and expanded Erica’s conversational knowledge.”
It’s doing quite a job of that, too; at last report, Erica has over 3.6 million users to its credit, and many of them are reporting that Erica has saved them money with the subscription management tools alone.
It’s easy to forget just what you’ve subscribed to, sometimes; one magazine or another, a gift subscription for Christmas that you extended once, or something similar. Being able to quickly tell just what you’re subscribed to and unsubscribing accordingly can be a huge help, especially if you’ve previously had quite a few subscriptions.
With Erica already packing quite a few capabilities and looking to add more all the time, the end result should be a positive one for its users and for Bank of America itself. Erica’s set to be a real market leader here, and that will only make it tougher for anyone else looking to compete.