Modernise the omnichannel journey for financial services organisations.

Financial brands that can skillfully guide customers across every channel are better positioned to deliver financial advice precisely when and where it's needed most. Today, individuals navigate complex financial paths, particularly during significant life moments such as buying a home or starting a business. They expect personalised support every step of the way.

While serving millions of unique customer needs with limited resources might seem impossible for financial services institutions, AI and rules-based automation are making it happen. Data-driven insights now enable personalised interactions at every touchpoint, ensuring a seamless and consistent customer experience throughout the journey.

This post will cover:

• Leveraging AI to create a personalised customer experience
• Integrating generative AI for hyper-personalisation
• Navigating data privacy and building trust in the AI era
• Using cross-channel insights to deliver the best experience
• Adding value to the customer’s financial health
• How Adobe can help

A recent Forrester report commissioned by Adobe highlights the importance of having a deep understanding of a customer’s goals and preferences to provide personalised assistance on the right channel at the right moment. Proactively guiding customers along an omnichannel journey that rarely, if ever, follows a linear path is only possible with the help of technological solutions that turn data into action.

A real-time customer profile, updated instantly across all channels, provides this deep customer understanding. It fuels personalised experiences that consistently exceed expectations. Coupled with a streamlined content supply chain, marketers have access to fresh, approved content ready to drive customer engagement.

Organisations can then optimise data analysis and content management using AI and automation to guide the customer journey precisely. This strategy boosts return on investment (ROI) by delivering highly relevant offers that significantly increase engagement and conversions across all channels, both online and off-line. A recent study reveals that 70% of Experience Leaders — firms that achieve significant ROI from personalisation at scale — already utilise AI-powered engines to tailor messages and experiences to customers' preferred channels.

By harnessing advanced AI and automation, financial services firms can enhance the customer journey, tailoring offers and communications to meet individual needs. This means personalising based on factors like recent interactions, historical value and eligibility for specific products. AI helps determine if a customer needs a service update or a new marketing offer, ensuring relevant and practical experiences are delivered at the ideal time on their preferred channel. Automation, including features such as frequency capping, also prevents customers from being overwhelmed with excessive messaging. These are just a few ways AI and automation empower financial organisations to deliver more personalised, engaging and impactful customer experiences.

The key to revolutionising the omnichannel journey lies in real-time, data-driven personalisation. Generative AI is now enabling financial services companies to tailor their marketing efforts with greater precision. This goes beyond simple product recommendations — it creates content, experiences and even advice that feels uniquely crafted for each individual.

Imagine a customer browsing mortgage options. Instead of generic information, generative AI could:

• Instantly draught personalised summaries of complex financial products in plain language, addressing their specific concerns based on their browsing history.
• Generate customised financial health tips that integrate their spending patterns and savings goals, delivered through their preferred channel (e.g., a personalised message in their banking app or a summary email).
• Power AI-driven chatbots that don't just answer questions but also proactively offer next steps, anticipate needs and provide empathy-driven responses, making self-service feel more human.

This capability enables financial institutions to scale hyper-personalisation, ensuring every interaction is not only relevant but also truly engaging and helpful. The result is stronger customer relationships and a faster, more seamless customer journey.

As financial services adopt AI, particularly generative AI, protecting data privacy, ensuring ethical use and building customer trust become critical priorities. This goes beyond regulatory compliance — it’s about securing sensitive information and safeguarding brand integrity.

To ensure your omnichannel strategy remains trustworthy and compliant:

• Prioritise transparency: Be clear with customers about how their data is being used to personalise their experiences. Simple, understandable privacy policies and opt-in/opt-out options are crucial.
• Ensure ethical AI practices: Implement robust governance frameworks for your AI models. This includes regularly auditing algorithms for bias, ensuring fairness in recommendations and explaining how AI decisions are made, particularly when those decisions affect a customer's financial well-being.
• Comply with evolving regulations: Stay ahead of global data privacy regulations (like GDPR, CCPA and emerging AI-specific laws). Your omnichannel platform should be flexible enough to adapt to new compliance requirements, ensuring both data security and customer rights remain protected.
• Focus on security: The integration of more data and AI models demands advanced cybersecurity measures to prevent breaches and protect customer financial information across all touchpoints.

To provide truly relevant and valuable experiences aligned with each customer’s unique goals, financial services organisations must track their journey in real time using cross-channel insights. Tools like predictive analytics can offer insights into what customers are likely to do next, allowing you to pivot as soon as the journey takes a turn.

Without real-time journey visibility, even sophisticated segmentation can lead to mismatched offers and missed opportunities to deepen relationships. Customers might get retargeting offers that don’t match their current financial goals — like an offer on a second mortgage when they haven’t secured their first — or be funneled into a nurture sequence they aren’t quite ready for.

When you follow your customers’ journey in real time, you can:

• Gather data from diverse sources to understand who your customer is and assess their financial well-being.
• Choose the message, offer or guidance most relevant to their current needs.
• Determine how far along they are in the journey to ensure subsequent interactions build on previous ones.
• Understand their preferred communication channel and reach them where they are most likely to engage, optimising key performance indicators (KPIs).

With an AI-driven decision engine at the helm, a customer could go from abandoning an application to reengaging with your company in a journey that looks something like this:

Financial institutions can utilise data and intelligent decision-making to gain a deeper understanding of their customers — who they are, what they are doing and why — while providing personalised education and guidance as they navigate across various channels. By utilising relevant data, institutions can create personalised and timely content that enables customers to make informed choices when it matters most.

For example, a bank can proactively collect insights from marketing, transactional and behavioural data to anticipate and prevent customer churn. If a customer stops engaging with marketing materials, their profile might reveal declining account balances and spending, coupled with an uptick in calls to the contact centre, all of which may signal a financial health risk. In response, the bank can send an email offering a cash advance, knowing the customer has an upcoming direct deposit. The bank’s website might adjust its messaging to promote credit-boosting resources or articles on saving money. And if the customer contacts the call centre or visits a branch, the bank representative will be well-informed about their situation and can provide tailored guidance to support their financial well-being. By prioritising proper guidance, the bank can improve customer satisfaction and retain deposits in the long run.

When top organisations utilise data on real-time customer behaviour, they are 4.8 times more likely to provide personalised experiences successfully. This level of customer engagement can only be achieved through an AI-powered decision engine that uses data to inform the creation and delivery of customised experiences.

Customers turn to financial institutions for guidance on managing their finances, including spending, saving, borrowing, investing and planning. Personalising the customer experience in real time across every channel presents a clear opportunity for these organisations to strengthen relationships and establish themselves as trusted financial advisors. As a leading provider of customer experience platforms, Adobe is well-positioned to support the transformation of your team, processes and technology, enabling you to deliver impactful experiences that drive meaningful action.

See the power of Adobe’s financial services solutions to streamline operations, automate regulatory processes and deliver seamless, personalised customer experiences.