UBank to trial artificially intelligent home loan assistant, Mia

National Australia Bank's digital bank UBank will launch Mia (pictured) (short for My Interactive Agent) in what it says is the world's first digital human in the home loan space.

It comes after partnering with a New Zealand tech company to create an artificially intelligent assistant to help in customer applications.

Partnering with FaceMe, a company known for their AI-powered digital humans, home loan borrowers will go face-to-face with Mia and have the ability to interact each step of the way.

UBank aren’t removing their live chat service, simply complementing it with the robot.

Mia will be in action later this month on the UBank website.

FaceMe uses IBM Cloud and Watson, to help create the digital humans who can see, hear, talk with and remember customers.

Using supervised AI training, the digital human is able to combine natural language, understanding with situational awareness, to create an appropriate response.

This is then delivered as synthesised speech and expression by the FaceMe-created UBank digital avatar ‘Mia’. 
She can also use fun gifs and animations during her chats.

The assistant was created in partnership with FaceMe, which recently secured US$10 million Series A capital funding after attracting a series of investors from Australia and New Zealand.

The project to create Mia, took about four months.

“Our vision is to enable companies like UBank to create more meaningful and valuable experiences for their customers," FaceMe CEO, Danny Tomsett, said.

"Mia offers an emotionally connected experience for servicing customers making an exciting and important life decision."