Equity release adviser, Key, has announced a partnership with speech analytics platform, Aveni.ai, as it looks to build artificial intelligence (AI) into its offering.

The strategic partnership will embed Aveni.ai at the heart of Key’s customer interactions – monitoring conversations with AI to improve the later life lending firm’s ability to support vulnerable customers.

Key becomes the first later life lending company in the UK to adopt Aveni.ai to support vulnerable customers.

Customer vulnerability is a leading concern for financial services companies, according to recent guidance from the FCA, which stipulates that firms must act to understand the needs of vulnerable customers and make sure they are treated fairly.

Identifying customer vulnerability or those who are at high risk has historically been the role of an agent, requiring them to flag a potential issue for further investigation. By using Aveni.ai to monitor all its conversations with customers, however, Key suggested that specific keywords and phrases can be automatically flagged and routed to its compliance team.

“We embrace innovation at Key, and our partnership with Aveni.ai demonstrates our commitment to using technology to consistently improve the quality of our advice, and ensure we continue to lead the market in how we support our clients,” commented Key CEO, Will Hale.

“Beyond efficiency, this partnership will allow us to drive greater transparency and oversight and help us to better identify vulnerable and other high-risk customers, all of which contribute towards ensuring the best possible outcomes for our customers.”

Aveni.ai CEO, Joseph Twigg, added: “Every company is unique, and off-the-shelf speech analytics tools often deliver less than optimal results, so we start by understanding the specific problems our customers are trying to solve.

“It’s great to work with a company like Key that truly cares about its clients and recognises that innovative solutions can help improve customer service and ultimately unlock a wealth of new intelligence and insight.”

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