Itaú Unibanco wants to catch the wave of launches of modalities Pix by the Central Bank to put new applications on the street. The new features include not only the contactless paymentstarted in November by the BC, but also services that use artificial intelligence. The idea is to personalize services for customers. This includes everything from simple payment in cash, physically or via WhatsApp, to using a credit card to pay in installments.
According to Mário Miguel, director of individual payment methods at Itaú, the bank has been actively working within the Itaú ecosystem. Pixto understand the new reality, where consumers and companies are increasingly connected and demanding simpler means of interaction, without leaving security aside. “Everything needs to be simple, easy, agile, modern and safe”, he says.
Itaú Unibanco announced this Friday (22) that it will launch, within an as yet undefined period, a functionality based on generative artificial intelligence which will allow the customer to make Pix from WhatsApp, without needing to open the bank app. Itaú wants to make its application a financial management “superapp”, also adding artificial intelligence to the program My Advantagesto expand its benefits.
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“Artificial intelligence will be a milestone in the way Itaú delivers new solutions to customers, changing their relationship with the bank”, says Ricardo Guerra, CIO of Itaú Unibanco.
To do the Pix no WhatsApp, customers can send messages to the official Itaú channel, asking for transactions of up to R$200 per day via Pix and the tool will automatically interpret text and audio messages, with the possibility of dividing expenses and generating proof of the transaction in seconds. Soon, it will also be possible to interpret messages in image format.
“We are in the experimentation phase with customers, after testing a lot internally, because WhatsApp is already in Brazilians’ lives today and will make the experience more fluid,” said Miguel. The solution has the ability to identify the value and recipient of the Pix in the conversation and the person just needs to confirm. The initial test will have 5 thousand customersbut there is still no defined duration”, says Guerra.
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How will WhatsApp work?
– Language recognition via text, audio or even image. The user, in this way, can be talking to someone who will make a Pix, asking for the amount and the payment key. The AI evaluates this, creates the payment and the user can just authorize it at the end. The process should be easy even for users with little familiarity with technology.
– There is a limit of R$200 per transaction/day, with data confirmation before making payment. Above this value, the customer is redirected to the Itaú application. But this limit may later be revised in the future.
Who is Pix in the payment queue
The payments market today moves approximately R$100 trillion per year, with Pix, in four years of existence, representing 22% of financial volume and 45% of transactional volume. “The ease has made this payment method increasingly relevant, becoming a favorite among Brazilians, with almost 170 million users, including people and companies, and 799 million registered keys”, says Mário Miguel.
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According to Miguel, despite the large adoption, consumers see Pix as just a form of transfer, but for the bank it represents many forms of payment for the near future, such as recurring purchases and installments. “By considering the complete ecosystem we are able to reduce friction, regardless of the customer’s choice of Pix modality.”
Approximate Pix
Contactless payment takes the Pix modality to another level, making life easier for the user, who will only need to bring their cell phone closer to the retailer’s machine to make the payment, as is already done today with cards. However, at first only Android users, who have Google’s digital wallet, will have the functionality available. Everything will be done via NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, which provides approximation reading between equipment. In other words, cell phones over 5 years old will no longer work.
Furthermore, anyone who has the Samsung and Apple digital wallet will still have to wait a little longer. This is because the two companies are still negotiating entry into the Central Bank system to become payment initiators. Therefore, iPhone users are still left out of Pix for now.
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