Kasisto Recognized for Two Consecutive Years on Deloitte’s North America 2020

NEW YORK, Nov.18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Kasisto, creators of KAI, the leading digital experience platform for the financial services industry, today announced it has been recognized for a second year running for its exceptional business growth on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ list, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America.

“For more than 25 years, we’ve been honoring companies that define the cutting edge and this year’s Technology Fast 500 list is proof positive that technology — from software and digital media platforms, to biotech — truly does permeate so many facets of our lives,” said Paul Silverglate, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and U.S. technology sector leader. “We congratulate this year’s winners, especially during a time when innovation is needed more than ever to address the monumental challenges posed by the pandemic.”

The use of conversational AI and virtual assistants to power digital experiences for banking customers isn’t something new. In 2020, the industry achieved a watershed moment as both operational challenges and cost pressures within the banking sector, and customer demand for digital experiences increased significantly across the globe. According to IDC, Conversational AI is embarking on an evolution as the banking industry is evolving from simple, digital conversations, to conversational automation and insights. And according to Celent, the 2021 financial service industry’s agenda will be led by digital channel enhancements and related operational efficiencies.

In addition to these important industry trends, the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the acceleration of many digital transformation strategies in banking. As customers have reduced access to traditional banking channels, especially through the local bank branch and overwhelmed call centers, virtual assistants and digital banking applications have emerged as critical channels to the banking products and services that consumers need on a daily basis.

According to Bob Meara, Senior Analyst in Celent’s Banking practice, “Digital banking has historically focused on providing convenient, on-demand, low friction transactions. Going forward, digital must also deliver timely, proactive and relevant engagement across a bevy of mechanisms. Conversational AI will play a key role in bringing this about.”

These digital adoption trends and underlying consumer demand are unfolding on a global basis and across every segment of the financial services industry. In 2020, Kasisto formed an important partnership with NCR, integrating KAI into NCR digital banking and making the industry’s leading virtual assistant, KAI Consumer Banking (KCB), available to banks and credit unions across NCR’s install base. With the first group of financial institutions signed up, deployments are now underway.

In addition to the NCR partnership, over the past year, KAI was further deployed by financial institutions across the globe:

• Absa, a leading financial institution operating in 13 African countries further expanded its KAI deployment over WhatsApp to its customers across the region.
• Nedbank, a banking leader within the South African market selected KAI as its conversational AI technology.
• As part of the Westpac Group and one of Australia’s leading wealth experts, BT Financial started its deployment of KIM (KAI Investment Management).

At the same time, Kasisto customers such as TD, Manulife, JPMC and many others have seen significant growth in the adoption of their KAI powered virtual assistants, with usage increasing by 120+% and digital channel engagement increasing 4x in many cases.

Kasisto’s chief executive officer, Zor Gorelov, attributes Kasisto’s impressive growth to accelerated demand for conversational AI powered virtual assistants across the financial services industry and the need for the industry to find innovative ways to reach the banking consumer…