[Sponsored Report] Hyundai Card’s Buddy keeps you in the know

Hyundai Card’s Buddy chatbot service can respond to a wide range of customer inquiries about credit card offerings. [HYUNDAI CARD]

Hyundai Card, Korea’s leading credit card issuer, is now offering Buddy, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot service for both Hyundai Card holders and potential members as well.

This is the sixth installment of the Digital Hyundai Card project following Lock & Limit, Virtual Card Number, Payshot and Chameleon card services that are designed to better the user experience in the digital space. Hyundai Card app users as well as potential users are expected to benefit from the chatbot service.

Available through the Hyundai Card smartphone application, the two personas of Buddy, named Fiona and Henry, respond to a wide range of customer inquiries about credit card offerings such as products, benefits as well as partnership services. Users are not only given the answers to their questions, but also further solutions including links to a credit card application or details about membership benefits. The service is also available through Facebook Messenger.

Given the intricacy of the Korean language, with hundreds of inflections and variations, most chatbot services have adopted a system that recognizes only the “keyword” of texts in order to answer to questions. Using IBM’s Watson natural language processing technique, Hyundai Card is able to analyze a wide range of inflections and grammatical irregularities to recognize the details and “intention” of the texts to provide more accurate answers and solutions. For instance, Buddy can understand the difference between questions like, “Which Hyundai Card has the lowest membership fee,” “Can you tell me what is the cheapest Hyundai Card?,” or “Tell me the lower-budget Hyundai Card.” This was made available when Hyundai Card has analyzed call center records in order to learn the real language of the customers.

The service will start with a beta edition, and incrementally evolve into a full range of service by learning from Hyundai Card users. The company plans to train the program to respond to more personalized inquiries, integrate customer data such as analyzing their credit card usage, or offer more lifestyle-oriented information such as weather or location. For example, Buddy will be able to locate the nearest restaurant offering discounts for Hyundai Card users.

“It is a pre-emptive response to the rapidly changing business environment, providing differentiated customer experience. This will help us take a leap to becoming a true digital company,” a Hyundai Card official said.