A couple of years after its initial boom, artificial intelligence (AI) still remains a huge buzzword in the fintech industry, as every firm looks at a new way of integrating the tech into its infrastructure to gain a competitive edge. Exploring how they are going about doing this in 2025, The Fintech Times is spotlighting some of the biggest themes in AI this February.
AI has taken the world by storm, massively impacting the customer service sector. However, while some organisations may feel that they can replace human workers with technology, the ‘human touch’ remains an important factor for many consumers. But how important is human contact in a world where AI has the potential of a faster, more streamlined customer service experience?
Empathy and critical thinking needed
Allen Bonde the CMO at TreviPay
Perhaps AI’s biggest flaw is its inability to understand a situation from an emotional standpoint. In finance, empathy with someone’s situation is an absolute must and according to Allen Bonde the CMO at TreviPay, the B2B payments firm, this is why the human touch is still needed in a sector turning to AI.
“The human touch remains very important in customer service, even as AI adoption grows. AI can handle repetitive or high-volume tasks, speeding up processes and increasing efficiency, but it lacks the empathy and critical thinking that human interaction provides. Firms should use AI to support, not replace, customer service teams. Doing so can enhance customer experiences by enabling faster responses and better solutions while preserving personal connections. Customers value personalised service, and businesses that blend AI’s strengths with human interaction build stronger trust and loyalty.”
Merging the perks of technology with human emotion
Martin Taylor, co-founder and deputy CEO of Content Guru
Echoing similar views, Martin Taylor, co-founder and deputy CEO of Content Guru, the communications integration provider also noted how the importance of human interaction in AI is something we’re seeing across the globe. While AI is undoubtedly here to stay, he notes that combining its capabilities with the emotion that human employees bring is the key to success.
“Recent findings, both in the UK and the US, reveal that customer satisfaction is at an all-time low; not because organisations have become less capable, but due to rising customer expectations in our ‘real-time’ society. Today, customers expect seamless service regardless of sector, leading to a growing intolerance for anything less than exceptional service.
“AI-assisted workers benefit from a reduction in repetitive tasks such as collecting information around a customer query or searching for associated knowledge articles, the bulk of which can be automated to save time and improve job satisfaction.
“Suddenly, the skills required by a contact centre worker shift from administrative competence to becoming focused on building relationships with customers and delivering empathy, the ‘human touch’ that customers increasingly demand, especially during high-stress calls that are typical of the finance sector. Firms should also be leveraging AI-enabled technology while the customer is waiting in the queue, to capture and analyse the reason that someone is calling, and guide them to the most appropriate available resource.”
Avoiding unnecessary errors – monitoring
Jonathan Moran, head of martech solutions marketing at SAS
Using AI too much has a risk of dehumanising any process in which it is being used. For Jonathan Moran, head of martech solutions marketing at SAS, the AI and analytics company, the firms most likely to succeed are those that that can provide a good customer experience by using AI to the most appropriate limit but keeping humans in the mix.
“Keeping humans in the loop is important not only for those using AI tools, but for those developing them.
“First, empathy must be built in at the foundation – the data input layer. That is, when you receive unstructured data from the customer, data ingestion capabilities must be able to apply sentiment and emotion-based AI and analytics to that data. That way, subsequent interactions and engagement can account for that emotion.
“AI, particularly generative AI, works best as a tool to empower creativity. It can suggest options that human minds may not have considered. The best way to collaborate with AI is to take those suggestions or inputs and add your own flair to them. AI is a powerful tool to augment human capabilities, but it doesn’t replace them.
“Humans need to be thoughtful with the development and deployment of AI within their organisations, or customer-related metrics will suffer. If employees let AI technologies go unmonitored, we know that negative outcomes can occur. A ‘human-in-the-loop’ approach is mandatory with AI.
“If brands use the technology properly, without allowing it to dehumanise processes, introduce or reinforce biases, or become disconnected from personal preferences, then it’s likely to benefit consumers.”
Completely solving an issue
Kelwin Fernandes, co-founder and CEO at NILG.AI
Kelwin Fernandes, co-founder and CEO at NILG.AI, the AI consulting firm, explains that ultimately consumers want to have issues resolved quickly and effectively. They hate being led in circles and the overuse of AI can cause this exact problem: “Users want their concerns to be solved promptly and for good. They don’t want customer service constantly circling the same issues without truly solving the problem.
“AI-enabled customer support tends to overfocus on finding the right sources of information via FAQs and pointing the user toward those sources instead of truly solving the issue. Although it’s a safer approach, it also increases frustration.”
AI actually creates a more satisfactory outcome
Despite the perks of the ‘human touch’ according to Bob Billbruk, CEO, Captjur, the strategic consulting and business aggregation firm, the best way of achieving a more efficient business outcome and satisfactory customer experience lies in AI. He says that removing human emotion can help reach a faster conclusion: “Customer services’ whole goal is a satisfactory resolution to an issue with the customer and client.“Some would argue that using AI actually increases positive customer service outcomes because you remove the human emotional element from the equation – AI only does what the big data analysis tells it to do which it is collecting daily from new customer service calls and chats and getting smarter about how to respond in the most effective way to resolve the issue the most satisfactory way. I think this leads to better and more efficient business outcomes.” How Important Is ‘The Human Touch’ in Customer Service as Firms Increasingly Use AI?
