Virtual assistants aren’t providing the boost in customer satisfaction that they once did, according to analysis across the firm’s banking and credit card mobile app studies. The average percentage of responding consumers who used a virtual assistant actually fell from 33% to 30%. The average overall satisfaction among consumers who used a virtual assistant also fell, from 691 to 687. Sean Gelles, senior director of banking and payments intelligence, believes the reason behind these declines goes beyond the virtual assistants themselves, which major institutions have been developing continuously. He points to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI and other GenAI tools. Virtual assistants have been looked to as the next step up. But consumers are getting used to more versatile GenAI assistants like ChatGPT and Copilot. He believes things are getting to the point where virtual assistants that were good — or good enough — in the past are not as much of a differentiator anymore. J.D. Power’s analysis found that customer satisfaction with apps and sites has been improving, but chiefly because of increased speed and other technical enhancements. Gelles says institutions have to begin assessing what’s missing from their digital experiences in general, as well as how GenAI could potentially improve their offerings. Overall, ease of use of digital channels remains a sticking point for customer satisfaction, according to Gelles. He says the average across the studies for users saying that they find the tools easy to use is only 28%. In a financial context, instead of presenting static choices, Gelles says, financial players could personalize things from the get-go, drawing on what services the consumer has tapped before.