More than 2 billion since 2018. That’s how many interactions Bank of America clients have had with Erica®, the most advanced and first widely available virtual financial assistant, since it launched. It took four years to reach 1 billion interactions, since which client engagement has surged, reaching a second billion just 18 months later.

"Erica acts as both a personal concierge and mission control for our clients," said Nikki Katz, Head of Digital at Bank of America. "Erica meets clients where they are and when they need us, and has become a true guide by their side."

Over the last six years, Erica's capabilities have expanded to support individual and corporate clients across the enterprise, including within Merrill, Benefits OnLine®, and the award-winning CashPro® platform.

"Erica is a great example of applied innovation in language processing and predictive analytics to deliver a valuable and empowering client experience," shared Hari Gopalkrishnan, CIO and Consumer, Business & Wealth Management Technology executive at Bank of America.

To date, Erica has responded to 800 million inquiries from over 42 million clients and provided personalized insights and guidance over 1.2 billion times. For example:

• Out of more than 30 proactive insights Erica provides to clients, the top insights include:
  • Monitoring and managing recurring subscriptions – 2.6 million per month
  • Helping clients understand spending behaviors – 2.2 million per month
  • Keeping clients informed about deposits and refunds – 2.1 million per month
• When clients ask Erica for assistance, common inquiries include:
  • Requesting an account number or routing number – 1.7 million per month
  • Finding transactions – 1.5 million per month
  • Assistance with money transfers and bill pay – 900,000 per month
• More than 98% of clients get the answers they need from Erica within 44 seconds, on average. When further assistance is needed, Bank of America's Mobile Servicing Chat capability connects clients with a live representative who can answer more complex servicing questions.

Just like the 213,000 teammates at Bank of America, fostering a personal relationship with clients is a priority for Erica. For example:

• Erica has sent birthday wishes to over 7,000 clients since launch.
• Erica also has a sense of humor, sharing more than 30 jokes with clients 49,000 times to date. For instance, "What did the duck say to the bartender? Put it on my bill."
• In February 2024, Erica helped clients get the most out of their next coffee date by alerting them to the new partnership between Bank of America and Starbucks.

"Our data science team has made more than 50,000 updates to Erica's performance since launch – adjusting, expanding and fine-tuning natural language understanding capabilities, ensuring answers and insights remain timely and relevant," said Katz. "2 billion client interactions is a compelling milestone though this is only the beginning for Erica."