The New Frontiers Of Consumer Engagement

Finding customers is less of a challenge than it once was, since most people carry a supercomputer in their pockets that makes them seconds away from contact in a variety of contexts — online, in-app, via email or text. But encountering customers and engaging them are two different things, and top-performing financial institutions (FIs) and merchants are focused these days on delivering an engaging experience at every touchpoint. How those engagements play out varies, because there is no playbook. Sometimes it takes pairing the right content with the right payments play — à la Aaptiv. Sometimes it’s about finding the right artificial intelligence (AI) enhancement to automate and streamline a process. And sometimes it takes using the data one already has to offer what consumers want and need. Whatever the method, it needs to be up and working well, because the competition for consumer eyeballs is fierce, and attention spans are short.

$12 billion: The current estimated value of the AI/machine learning market.

$100/year: The annual fee Aaptiv users pay to gain access to the app’s audio workout content.

90 percent: The share of FIs that will use AI technology by 2024.

80 percent: The share of top-performing FIs planning to focus on consumer engagement over the next three years.

36 percent: The share of FIs planning to focus on data analytics in the next three years.