Smart Pension has brought SAVA (the 'Smart Avatar Virtual Assistant') on board its customer service team
The digital human, a super-realistic, fully interactive avatar with its own virtual nervous system, capable of responding to human questions in real time via an ordinary computer or mobile, has joined Smart Pension to provide customer service support to its almost one million members, 24/7, 365 days a year.
The technology has been built by Smart in collaboration with its ‘true likeness science’ partner Trulience, and is the culmination of years of work by Trulience’s co-founders, Marek Zwiefka-Sibley and Ben Weekes.
SAVA is capable of functioning in 22 languages and is fully accessible, with users able to speak or type any questions, and either hear or read responses. The technology is designed to make information about pensions and retirement available to everyone, even to savers who have difficulty reading or writing, as part of Smart’s mission to ‘transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world’.
Sue Whittington, Director of Operations at Smart Pension, said:
“We’re delighted to have SAVA on board as part of our award-winning customer service team. As SAVA provides assistance to our nearly one million members who have their queries quickly answered, it reduces wait times for customers whose questions require technical assistance. All of this means our UK team can put even more time and investment into helping employers and savers with their pension needs.”
Jamie Fiveash, CEO – Smart UK, said:
“Developing state-of-the-art technology to put our customers at the heart of the user experience is key. By automating the simple stuff, our valued colleagues can focus on helping our clients with the hard stuff that an interactive avatar cannot. For other businesses, the applications of Trulience’s technology are endless; just in finance, Trulience could provide engaging and clear advice journeys for those who cannot afford to pay for a human adviser – finally real robo advice is on the horizon.
Trulience is a key part of us improving our customer experience now, and will be with us long into the future. We are the first fintech firm to offer this service to our members, and it will be a continuously evolving part of our next generation global savings technology platform going forward.”
Launched in 2015, Smart Pension exceeds £5bn in assets under management (AUM) and now serves over one million members and more than 70,000 employers. It is powered by Keystone, Smart’s global savings and investments technology platform.
Aquiline Capital Partners, Barclays, Chrysalis Investments, DWS Group, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, J.P. Morgan, Legal & General Investment Management, Link Group and Natixis Investment Managers are all investors in Smart Pension.