Client
Kasisto, Inc.
What is KAI?
Scope
0-1 envisioning, digital visual experience design and motion design, executed in no more than 20 hours per week and a very low budget
Role and Contributions
UI/UX Designer, with focus on Visual Design
and Animation
Timeline:
April 2020 - July 2020
Kasisto Artificial Intelligence - KAI Virtual Assistant for banks
A banking virtual assistant that learns
Existing Precedents
Specifically for banking:
• Clari (TD Bank)
• Stacy (Standard Chartered).
Others:
•Alexa (Amazon)
• Siri (Apple)
• Cortana
• Bixby
• Lyra
• Viv
• Ozlo
The Problem
VAs are meant to replace human conversation via auditory and textual means. While chatbots are server or company oriented, a VA is user/customer oriented. It is an application program that understands natural language voice commands and completes tasks for the customer. VAs save money in sales, since they are an addition to the website. They help customers troubleshoot, work with discount codes, loyalty programs and solve almost 70% of other customer issues without needing human intervention.
The Challenge
• Improve engagement metrics
• Set the stage for the user experience of an AI Virtual Assistant, instead of just another bank chatbot.
• Design a vision for a data-driven Avatar, that is the cause of engagement for users to take action within a system.
The Solution
The VA was to be named KAI, after Kasisto Artificial Intelligence. It was to be a genderless objectless entity representing a higher promise beyond just a persona. It was to be an experience. In other words, what Kasisto brings to the table is a data-driven model, instead of a conversational persona. It could abstract and therefore lend itself well to various branding. It has motion to each state it projects. As in: States of Alert, Thinking, Calculating, Idleness, even Regret or Satisfaction (Happiness).
An early idea about the User Inactivity state: With time, KAI turns itself into a sunrise - sunset scene and night sky with the moon appearing. Because KAI knows the birthday of the particular user, the star constellation in the night sky turns into their star sign. The storyboard scene can be used for other special occasions as well. The animation is smooth and the music is relaxing.
How I tested the idea in front of real users?
Test users were shown static images of KAI avatar states and asked to match the image to a description. For any avatar they couldn’t match to a description, test users were to select: “I’m not sure” and provide feedback in free form.
Total number of participants: 27
Outcome
While the majority of testers enjoyed the process of trying to match the avatar states with the appropriate image, overall only a few avatar states seemed to match the intended behavior and the larger majority of users were confused by the avatar states. They thoguht the states were too ambiguous and unclear as to what they were meant to be. Motion was added to communicate intent.