Background
ABC Financial’s support volume was expected to expand and they were concerned with delayed response times for traders and retail clients who needed timely transaction updates. The existing chatbot, built on rule-based logic, handled automation but fell short in delivering empathy, personalization, or trust during regular financial interactions.
Leadership asked my team to reimagine and expand the customer experience by exploring how AI could provide a proactive, human-like service. The goal was to design an AI powered digital account representative fluent in financial language yet approachable, transparent, and capable of adapting to the client’s intent in real time.
My Role
Design Lead
Collaboration Team
AI Engineer
Service Designer
Compliance Officer
Focus
Conversational UX
AI Integration
Trust Design
Proof Of Concept - Demo
Tools
Soul Machines
Timeline
2 weeks
Challenge
ABC Financial wanted to reimagine its customer service experience by exploring new AI technologies that could better support private clients. The existing AI assistant, a rule-based chatbot, answered queries accurately but failed to deliver a human-like or emotionally intelligent experience.
User feedback revealed key gaps:
Repetitive, robotic phrasing (e.g., “A summary of your transactions is available...”)
No session memory or personalized responses
A rigid tone that reduced trust and user confidence
Manual escalation required for even simple requests
My challenge was to redesign the conversational system so clients could interact naturally and feel understood, informed, and secure while managing their financial data—elevating the experience from transactional to relational.
Approach
I led a cross-functional effort that brought together an AI Engineer, Compliance Officer, and Service Designer to reimagine how intelligent conversations could elevate the private client experience. Together, we mapped the end-to-end service ecosystem, from advisor interactions to automated touchpoints, to identify where trust, tone, and transparency most influenced user confidence. We highlighted the linguistic and behavioral cues that defined credible financial communication based on common client interactions.
When defining deliverables, I recognized that slides couldn’t capture the essence of this project—the heart of the work was the conversation itself. To make it real, our team built a minimal viable product (MVP): an interactive demo showcasing the AI assistant’s tone, adaptability, and contextual intelligence. Using generative AI, we simulated authentic client dialogues with the Compliance Officer’s oversight to test tone, escalation logic, and regulatory language. The MVP became a shared artifact that aligned stakeholders, de-risked implementation, and proved how conversational AI could extend ABC Financial’s service ethos with both humanity and precision.
Solution
We delivered a next-generation AI assistant that transformed ABC Financial’s chatbot from a transactional tool into a trusted digital account representative. The assistant could recognize financial intent, recall session context, and dynamically adjust its tone to match user sentiment—whether guiding a trader through a time-sensitive transaction or reassuring a client about investment performance. Transparency cues were embedded throughout the conversation, explaining data sources and decisions in clear language to reinforce trust.
The AI Assistant was redesigned into a conversational, context-aware digital account representative that builds trust and adapts to client intent in real time.
Integrated natural language understanding, sentiment detection, and memory enabling personalized, emotionally intelligent responses.
Embedded transparency and compliance safeguards directly into the dialogue flow, explaining data sources and actions in plain language.
Simplified the interface and interaction model, focusing on human-like conversation, adaptive prompts, and seamless escalation when human support is needed.
Why This Case Study Was a Success
This project succeeded because it went beyond interface design to redefine the role of AI in human-centered financial services. I reframed the brief from improving a chatbot to designing a conversational ecosystem that builds trust, empathy, and efficiency for private clients.
Success Points:
Elevated Strategy Beyond Interface Design
I reframed the challenge from “improving a chatbot” to redefining a service relationship through conversation. By focusing on tone, trust, and human intent, you shifted the discussion from features to experience strategy — aligning executives around what it means for AI to represent the brand.
Led a Cross-Functional Collaboration
I worked with a Service Designer, a Compliance Officer, and an AI Engineer to co-design responsibly. This collaboration bridged regulatory, technical, and human considerations, ensuring the AI assistant was both emotionally intelligent and compliant. This collaboration played a role in designing not only the product but also the process.
Proved Value Through Tangible Demonstration
Instead of relying on slides or concept decks, I advocated for and delivered an MVP demo to make the vision experiential. This move accelerated executive alignment, validated technical feasibility, and secured buy-in for the next phase, demonstrating strong influence and business acumen.
In Summary:
Guided by systems thinking, the work shaped ABC Financial’s AI strategy and transformed a technical challenge into a human-centered evolution of client experience—positioning UX as a strategic force in how the organization builds trust and relationships.
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