If you’ve used your bank’s chatbot feature, you’ve probably entered into the conversation with mixed expectations.
When at its best, the chatbot quickly answers your question or performs a task, saving you the time and effort of a phone call or branch visit.
At worst, it’s your most annoying acquaintance: Pops up loudly and gets in the way. Always wants to talk but doesn’t seem to know much about you. Offers to help, then eventually tells you to call someone else.
Bank chatbots — ahem, virtual assistants — do have their fans. Some bots are actually quite useful at handling a growing list of tasks and are perhaps undeserving of the slanderous critique laid out above.
And if they seem to have the problem-solving skills of a 7-year-old, well, maybe they’re just acting their age. Sure, some technological archaeologists can undoubtedly trace the lineage of the bank chatbot back to the 1990s. But customers have really only been interacting with their bank’s modern-day virtual assistant within the past decade.
Those interactions typically put both the chatbot’s talents and flaws on full display.
“They’re fast but stupid,” says Michael Abbott, global banking and capital markets lead at Accenture and co-author of the firm’s Banking Consumer Study 2025, which surveyed customers about various aspects of their relationship with their bank, including their use of chatbots.
However, Abbott and other consumer banking observers say that will soon change. Here’s a look at where bank chatbots stand today and how they may function in the future.
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Who Uses Bank Chatbots, and for What?
Chatbots can be found within a bank’s app or on its website, and their capabilities vary depending on the institution. The more basic models function essentially as an FAQ section, while the best bots are built to provide personalized insights and perform useful tasks quickly and effectively.
Bank of America’s chatbot, Erica, often pointed to as one of the most advanced virtual assistants, was launched in 2018 and surpassed 3 billion client interactions this past August.
“Our clients appreciate Erica’s ability to help them manage their spending, improve budgeting and increase savings,” Nikki Katz, head of digital at Bank of America, said in a statement celebrating the milestone. “Erica is the bedrock upon which we’ve built an unmatched high-tech, high-touch client experience.”
Within the chat, Erica offers a range of services, such as providing customers with spending forecasts, reporting a lost card or transferring funds. She also notifies customers of deals or rewards they may qualify for based on their spending habits or account activity.
But most chatbots still have work to do to win over consumers.
In Accenture’s survey of 49,300 banking customers, only 29% of respondents said they were satisfied with their bank’s chatbot, ranking it dead last among their preferred banking channels, well behind branch and phone representatives.
Deloitte’s Consumer Banking Survey 2025 found more favorable opinions of virtual assistants, especially from younger audiences, with 70% of millennials and 67% of Gen Z respondents rating their interactions positively. (Only 28% of baby boomers rated their chatbot interactions favorably.) However, 74% of those surveyed by Deloitte said they still prefer human representatives over chatbots or virtual agents, even for simple tasks.
Most people say they use their bank’s virtual assistant for fairly routine tasks, such as checking a balance or recent transaction. Tech support is another common request.
Researchers say one hurdle to chatbot adoption is just getting customers to try it out. Deloitte found that 37% of those surveyed had never used their bank’s virtual assistant. Perhaps the harder group to convince are those who tried it and left frustrated.
“When people have a smooth experience, they’re more likely to return,” says Val Srinivas, banking and capital markets research leader at the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, who is one of the authors of the study. “A negative experience can turn them off for good.”
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What Bank Chatbots Do Well
The best bank virtual assistants are powered by AI and allow you to complete tasks quickly without leaving the chat. Here are a few of their top features.
Performing Some Tasks Fast
If you need to report a lost debit card, transfer funds or view transactions, your bank’s chatbot may save you time by handling those requests in the chat. Your bank’s virtual assistant will often give you suggestions for tasks it can perform or details it can look up for you.
Providing Spending Insights
More advanced chatbots can display your spending data in ways that can help you make budgeting decisions. For example, they can often break down your spending by category or forecast how much you may spend in the week ahead.
24/7 Assistance
Your bank may not have phone representatives available around the clock, but chatbots can help you at all hours. As these virtual assistants become more advanced, their availability will continue to make them an appealing option.
Where Bank Chatbots Still Struggle
Interactions with your bank’s virtual assistant can sometimes lead to frustration. Here’s where the chatbots will need to improve.
Solving More Complex Issues
Chatbots aren’t typically equipped to solve problems that involve multiple components or fall outside of the bot’s programmed script, and they may fail to recognize a customer’s intent. Even some seemingly simple requests can get overcomplicated when chatting with a bot.
Abbott gives an example he experienced earlier this month when he asked a chatbot to tell him the current interest rate on his savings account. Instead of responding with the annual percentage yield, the virtual assistant sent him a multipage PDF of his most recent statement, which was difficult to navigate on his phone. He says these kind of interactions make the chatbot feel robotic.
Collaborating with Human Customer Service
The more maddening experiences tend to come after a chatbot fails to resolve your issue. When this happens, it typically either passes you off to a human agent or gives you a number to call. However, once you’re on the phone with a representative, they ask you to repeat everything you just told the chatbot.
This experience can lead customers to determine they might as well just call the bank in the first place, and it can cause them to give up using the virtual assistant.
“Customers get frustrated when there’s no graceful path to a human,” says Matt Hasan, CEO of aiRESULTS, a firm that helps businesses including banks craft their AI strategy and implement virtual assistants.
Turning Data Into Advice and Product Suggestions
This is an area where experts — and banks — see great potential for innovation in the coming years. Currently, while your bank’s virtual assistant might highlight your spending habits, it most likely doesn’t use that information to suggest a bank account or loan product that might be the best fit for you.
Experts say that if chatbots evolve to offer you accurate, actionable advice, that could help the customer make better financial decisions and allow the bank to sell more products.
The Future of Virtual Assistants
Observers say they expect virtual assistants to advance significantly in the next several years.
“In less than two to three years, banking chatbots could evolve from answering questions to offering tailored financial advice,” says Srinivas. “As they become more autonomous and context-aware, they will act more like digital advisors — helping customers plan, save and manage money with minimal human input.”
Abbott says he expects the next generation of chatbots to offer a more personalized and reliable experience.
“I really do think that in the future chatbots are going to be like texting with your banker,” says Abbott. “The technology’s here, people are working on it, and I think the data I have is in the rearview mirror. Out the front windshield it looks a little clearer.”
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Bank Chatbots are ‘Fast but Stupid’ ? That Could Soon Change originally appeared on usnews.com
