U.S. Bank rolls out Spanish-language voice assistant for mobile app

Dive Brief:

U.S. Bank has launched a Spanish-language version of their mobile app voice assistant, the company said last week in a press release.
The Minneapolis-based lender said it is the first bank in the country to offer a Spanish-language voice assistant.
U.S. Bank app users who set their language preference to Spanish are now able to check their balance, transfer money, track their credit score, make payments and quickly search for other functions by speaking into their smartphone (or typing) in Spanish.

Dive Insight:

Mobile banking has surged in popularity over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 44% of American bank customers said mobile apps were their preferred banking channel, the American Bankers Association found in a survey conducted in October by Morning Consult. That's an 11 percentage-point boost from pre-COVID times.

U.S. Bank aims to capitalize on user trends, citing a Pew Research Center survey that found 25% of Hispanic Americans are “smartphone-only” internet users, compared with 12% of White adults and 17% of Black adults.

The lender’s Spanish-language voice assistant is intended to make mobile banking more accessible to and more convenient for underserved communities, the bank said.

“Asistente Inteligente is the first Spanish language virtual assistant of its kind in the United States, offering Spanish-speaking customers the very best digital banking tools from U.S. Bank,” Dominic Venturo, chief digital officer at U.S. Bank, said in a press release. “This not only builds on ... our long-term approach to help diverse customers build wealth, but also demonstrates our continued emphasis on putting customer experience first, by creating new digital tools that enable them to bank however, whenever and wherever is best for them.”

The voice assistant was tested by Hispanic employees in the U.S. Bank Nostros Latinos Business Resource Group to ensure proper language usage, the bank said.

Spanish-language service is Hispanic customers’ second-highest priority when choosing a bank, after branch location, U.S. Bank said, citing MRI-Simmons’ National Consumer Study.

“Asistente Inteligente is not only cutting-edge technology, but precisely the kind of technology Hispanic Americans find particularly valuable,” said Ramiro Padilla Klein, U.S. Bank's vice president for Hispanic segment strategy.