A world-leading artificial intelligence company based in Ireland has signed a major deal with Allied Irish Banks.
Dublin-based Boxever was named in the top ten most powerful examples of AI in use today, alongside Google, Apple, Tesla, Netflix and Amazon.
The three-year contract with AIB will help drive enhanced personalised experiences for the bank’s customers.
The partnership reflects Boxever’s continued growth in the financial services sector having initially targeted the airline industry.
“When we originally set up in 2011, we developed our technology to be sector-agnostic,” CEO Dave O’Flanagan told BusinessCloud.
“We wanted to build a product for everyone but opted to start off selling it into airlines. This was a smart move at the time as it helped us narrow our focus, increased investor confidence and allowed us to build up expertise in a particular sector.”
Boxever counts Emirates, Jetstar, Aer Lingus among its customers. However focusing on industries with complex evolving customer engagement challenges such as financial services will remain a key priority.
“We never lost sight of our original goal and a few years ago we expanded our target market to other sectors,” added O’Flanagan.
“We have steadily grown our non-airline customer base and this partnership with AIB reflects our continued growth of our non-airline business.
“Customers will notice that digital interactions with AIB will be more ‘joined up’ and intelligent. AIB will be looking to understand customers’ priorities and needs and react accordingly, simplifying the options they see in their day to day digital banking experience.
“When customers step outside the day-to-day, e.g. because they need a mortgage, they should find the whole process is connected and seamless. From first search, to using mortgage calculators, online application, booking branch appointments – all the way through to drawdown.”
Boxever has raised $30 million raised to date and serves customers, including some of the world’s biggest companies, in 16 countries.
The company has offices in London and Madrid but is proud to be headquartered in Dublin.
“Myself and our two co-founders happen to be Irish so that had a key role to play in founding our HQ here,” said O’Flanagan.
“Dublin has been a tech hub for a while. There’s a lot of great talent and that’s part of why we’ve been so successful here.
“Ireland’s open door policy makes it easy for global talent to come here so that’s probably attractive to companies as well.
“There’s a lot of passionate product talent in Dublin and despite the large number of companies here it remains a relatively tight community, which I feel is the key asset we have here as a tech hub.”