We asked banking leaders. Here’s a sneak peek of our findings in advance of our June 12 webinar

How important is customer experience in banking today? Very. It's the number one business challenge banks face, surpassing even regulatory compliance, because it links directly to revenue. And the stakes are only getting higher as new digital-only challenger banks and fintechs offer customers even more choices. Banks that can improve customer experience in this environment can retain and grow existing customer relationships, acquire new customers and stand out from the pack.

But how can they do it? For many, that’s less clear. Lately there’s a lot of buzz about the role that artificial intelligence and machine learning can play in this pursuit, which makes sense. Buzz doesn’t always translate into action, of course – just because banking leaders are talking about using AI to inform the customer experience, that doesn’t mean they’re doing anything about it.

So … are they?

There’s only one way to find out: Ask them. That’s exactly what we did recently, in partnership with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, Accenture and Intel. We surveyed hundreds of leaders across industries, and 13 percent were banking executives.

What did we find? In some cases, you might be surprised.

For example, when we asked how important real-time analytics capabilities are, we expected a good showing. But fully 66 percent of banking respondents said it was important today – and 83 percent expect it to be more important in two years. When I shared this finding with Edwin Van der Ouderaa, Senior Managing Director of Accenture’s Financial Services Digital and Analytics group, he pointed to another finding: 45 percent of respondents reported “significant” increases in investments in real-time analytics, with another 30 percent reporting a “slight” increase.

“It seems clear to me that leaders in banking are actively ramping up in this space because they only see it becoming more important,” Van der Ouderaa told me. “This squares with what I hear in conversations with clients every day. There’s a sense that you just can’t sleep on real-time analytics.”

Maneeza Malik, Senior Advanced Analytics and AI Marketing Manager for Intel, told me, “The survey findings suggest another big reason banks are ramping up their investments in real-time analytics: Results.” She’s right: A high percentage of survey respondents say they’re already seeing results from their investments in real-time analytics capabilities. Seventy-four percent say they’ve seen “significant” increases in customer retention and loyalty, for example. Fifty-five percent report significant increases in growth and revenue generation.

And that’s just the start. The survey on real-time customer experience contains a wealth of insights – a healthy mix of surprises and more predictable insights – that you can use to help guide your bank’s efforts in this vitally important development in customer experience delivery. This is the right time to be ahead of the curve on this issue. So please join Accenture, Intel and SAS for a webinar discussion for a deeper dive into the findings – as well as a guided discussion on what they mean for the world of banking.