How Many Hours of Work Will That New TV Cost? Just Ask Ally Bank on Alexa.
Ally Bank today announced it has launched an Alexa skill which allows its customers to easily access and manage their bank accounts. With the Ally skill, customers can check their account balance, track recent transactions and deposits, transfer money and access deposit interest rates with voice commands on Alexa-enabled devices. Ally joins other financial institutions like Capital One, American Express and TD Ameritrade who also offer similar features to their customers on Alexa. But what makes Ally’s skill different is a the CurrenSee feature which converts the price of any item into the number of working hours it will take the user to earn the item amount. For instance, Ally provided this example:
- User: “Alexa, open Ally and tell me how much a $1,000 bike will cost in CurrenSee?”
- Alexa: “Okay. How much do you make in a year?”
- User: “$75,000.”
- Alexa: “Thanks. How many hours do you work in a week?”
- User: “40 hours.”
- Alexa: “Okay a $1,000 bike will cost you 27.73 hours of work.”
Making Banking Personal with Alexa
As Rachel Batish from Conversation.One pointed out, even the larger banks are fighting to stay relevant with increased competition from fintech and social finance apps like Venmo, especially among younger customers. The Ally Alexa skill with its CurrenSee feature is one way for Ally to keep pace with other tech savvy solutions by providing a personal banking tool to further engage its customers. The skill is on-brand for Ally as it has positioned itself as less serious and straight-laced than its rivals.
Ally has also adopted innovative technology solutions in the past as it was one of the first banks to offer voice assistant service on its smart phone apps in 2015. The bank’s investments appear to be paying off as Ally Bank was named best bank on the internet and best for millennials in 2017 by Kiplinger. “In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, our customers are looking for easier, individualized ways to manage their banking needs, which is why we are so excited to be working with Amazon to launch the Ally Skill,” said Diane Morais, president of Consumer and Commercial Banking Products at Ally Bank. “Amazon’s Alexa has stayed at the forefront when it comes to leveraging innovative technology, and through this skill we’re continuing to do right by our customers by giving them the freedom to bank on their own terms.”
Banks Can Create an Alexa Skill in Just Three Steps with the Conversation.One Platform
