Fifth Third is among the traditional banks leveraging AI via its chatbot, Jeanie, to manage customer inquiries and enhance service quality and satisfaction. The solution aimed to improve the customer service experience, but also to support agents, who could manage multiple chat conversations at once — something that was not possible with one-on-one phone calls. They zeroed in on enhancing the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) model. According to Michelle Grimm, Senior Director, Conversational AI at Fifth Third, Jeanie initially picked up on just 20% of customer intents correctly. By reconfiguring the model and developing a proprietary model, they pushed that figure up to about 87%. The bank uses a traditional NLU built on traditional topic modeling to figure out what the customer wants to do. When a customer types in their request, the NLU identifies the intent behind it, classifies the action the customer wants to take, and the bank then verifies that understanding. Since Jeanie runs on traditional AI, it avoids the risk of hallucinations or generating false information — a common concern with generative AI systems. Fifth Third is focused on evolving Jeanie in several key areas, including: Agentic AI: Incorporating agentic AI to strengthen customer service is one of the future paths under consideration. Task Automation: Moving Jeanie beyond simply guiding users through self-service options to actually completing tasks for them. Multilingual Support: The bank aims to open the door to more inclusive service by offering help in additional languages. Fifth Third has enhanced its Voice of the Customer (VoC) program by transitioning from traditional customer surveys to advanced speech analytics. The bank tapped into a third-party analytics tool, NICE Nexidia Analytics and Enlighten AI, enabling the analysis of every customer call across various departments, including consumer banking, collections, and commercial services. The VoC program provides customer behavior insights → the bank identifies service gaps Jeanie can fill → it improves Jeanie’s use and visibility based on that feedback. Insights from the VoC program also enable the bank to identify common customer needs and redirect inquiries that can be addressed digitally. The bank uses post-interaction surveys to learn whether customers’ problems were effectively addressed after speaking with an agent. The bank also analyzes customers’ first utterances when engaging with Jeanie, especially when new products or features are released. “This helps us identify if we need to enhance capabilities related to those new offerings,” says Grimm. Beyond surveys, the Conversational AI team stays in sync with the product and customer experience teams, gathering feedback directly from frontline agents on what could be improved.