Bank of America EricaAssist adds generative AI for call centre staff

Bank of America EricaAssist has been upgraded with generative AI capabilities for 18,000 call centre employees, the bank said, giving staff client insights and servicing guidance within seconds. The rollout is aimed at speeding call handling and supporting more consistent decisions while employees are speaking with customers.

The bank said the virtual assistant now works alongside customer service employees during calls, drawing together relevant information in real time rather than requiring staff to leave the conversation flow to search for it. For a large retail banking operation, that mechanism matters because small reductions in handling time and better prompts can affect both service capacity and client experience.

What is Bank of America EricaAssist?

EricaAssist is Bank of America’s internal virtual customer service assistant for employees who handle client calls. In its latest version, the tool uses generative AI to summarise the reason for a call, gather relevant details and suggest next steps for the employee.

Bank of America said the recommendations are tailored to the employee’s role and the client’s relationship with the bank. The assistant is designed to provide that support during the call, without interrupting the discussion between the customer and the representative.

How does the generative AI support work?

Generative AI systems can produce summaries and suggested responses from large amounts of information. In this customer service setting, Bank of America said the technology is being used to identify why a client has contacted the bank, combine the information needed to address the issue and present guidance to the employee in real time.

Ashley Ross, head of consumer client experience and business transformation at Bank of America, said the upgrade combines human judgment with real-time AI guidance so employees can address complex topics more easily and serve clients more effectively when decisions are needed.

Ross said the new capability can deliver contextual guidance in under three seconds. According to the bank, that speed is intended to help representatives resolve client needs faster and support decision-making during customer service interactions.

Where Bank of America plans to use EricaAssist next

Bank of America plans to broaden EricaAssist later this year, the bank said. The expansion is expected to cover more servicing scenarios and additional business lines, although the bank did not provide further details on which units would be added or the timing of each phase.

The deployment places generative AI inside a front-line banking workflow rather than limiting it to back-office experimentation. Bank of America’s stated approach keeps the employee in the service role while the software supplies prompts, summaries and relevant context during the call.

The bank did not disclose cost figures, productivity targets or customer satisfaction metrics for the EricaAssist upgrade. Its public description focuses on speed, relevance and staff support, with the under-three-second response time serving as the main performance measure disclosed for the new generative AI feature.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.