Until a while ago, employee background checks were quite cumbersome. Take, for instance, opening an account in a large cooperative bank when one shifted to a new locality. One of the first requirements was a “personal reference” from an existing account holder who could vouch for the person trying to open an account. But getting someone to vouch for someone new in the city is next to impossible. Thankfully, things became a bit more user-friendly with time, and the Aadhar card was declared an acceptable document to open an account.
However, owing to the nature of the business, employment background checks were a tedious process. Being physically present for KYC, document authentication, identity verification, physically vetting the place of stay, financial information corroboration etc., are critical steps, especially for industries where security is vital. These time-consuming, manually intensive employment background checks resulted in long waiting periods and repeated follow-ups from the customers’ end, leading to a hectic experience for the customers.
Digitalization has transformed the customer onboarding and KYC verification experience by moving it from a physical capability to online. Not only is this user friendly, but also scalable and more secure for the companies. It speeds up the onboarding process with minimum human intervention. In a highly competitive environment, a customer is spoilt for choice. If signing up with a company to avail of their services becomes lengthy and tiresome, it is a lost opportunity for the bank. The pandemic further fuelled the need for businesses to go digital to remain relevant and carry out business as usual.
The problem with the traditional customer onboarding and KYC experience
Old-school paper-based application forms and onboarding methods acted as deterrents for the customer. The drop out rates were high as people had to be physically present for their KYC. In addition to that, they were required to fill up long application forms and have their addresses physically verified; identity corroboration and signature verification were all done in person. This increased the time spent onboarding a customer, led to high frustrations, was prone to error due to all the manual involvement and finally, updating records and departments was operationally inefficient. At first, companies were apprehensive about fully adopting the digital mode of work, but the pandemic lockdowns left them with no other choice. Digital adoption became the need of the hour to ensure business continuity.
Need for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Digitization
One of the key reasons clients appreciate digitization is the ease of accessibility to a business. With a click of a button, they can become users, set up login credentials, register themselves online and access the services.
How has the video KYC verification experience been enhanced with AI?
Client authentication has become super easy with AI-powered video KYC verification. Video KYC verification digitizes end-to-end customer onboarding journeys with innovations such as liveness detection, geotagging capabilities and Optical Character Recognition. This not only is convenient for the customer but is faster, more scalable and highly secure for the business. Using Video KYC powered by AI to onboard customers can save your company’s operational costs by 70% and reduce KYC turnaround time by almost 90%. Video KYC is the perfect way for NBFCs, Banks, mutual funds, logistics, telecom, insurance, mobile wallets and P2P companies to augment customer experience and identify financial frauds and identity deceptions before onboarding customers.
AI-powered liveness detection and image recognition technologies use biometric anti-spoof algorithms that corroborate the authenticity of the image taken and match it with legal ID proof provided by a customer. They also give instant notifications if the pictures do not meet certain specifications. The Digital KYC solution eliminates paperwork and makes the entire journey contactless and seamless, bringing down customer drop-out rates.
How has Digital Customer onboarding been enhanced with AI?
End-to-end digital onboarding process requires zero paperwork and allows ten times faster service activation, thereby improving the customer journey. AI-powered onboarding features are built on liveness detection and intelligent facial recognition technologies that are RBI-compliant. Not only do these help the business scale its processes seamlessly, but they also lay a strong foundation for a long-lasting customer relationship. By verifying and validating customer identities in real-time, companies can scale up uber fast, eliminate manual errors and delays, and bring down their operational costs
Digital KYC and Digital Customer On-boarding is the future; Government initiatives coupled with intelligent screening solutions will empower companies to achieve this transformation.
