'Your voice is passport' to banking services

Customers of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank will be able to use their voice to check the balance in their accounts and buy wealth-management products as the lender launched the industry’s first voice-based interaction app yesterday, the latest effort by a Chinese bank to embrace an artificial intelligence era.

“Your voice is your passport to our banking services,” said Chen Zhuo, product manager of the lender’s electronic banking department.

The Pudong Bank has built an open alliance for smart financial innovation with Baidu, iFLYTEK Co and Shanghai Clearing House.

“As the artificial intelligence era has come, the combination of the technology and finance will revolutionize the financial industry in terms of the way of doing business, the internal momentum as well as the service efficiency,” said Pan Weidong, executive vice president of the Shanghai-based bank.

IFLYTEK, a software firm, provides the smart interaction technology for this app.