We launched Bank of America’s voice assistant called Erica. Pilots showed customers weren’t interested in “getting to know” our friendly new creation. Our goal was to re-introduce them to it, ultimately making Erica integral to their online banking experience. Qualitative and quantitative customer feedback and secondary research led me to a series of findings. To “befriend humans,” Erica needed to do three things:

• Avoid making assumptions. Most people at the time knew little about voice assistants.

• Prove what she can do. Customers weren’t seeing a need for Erica, nor dealing with of an obvious problem she could solve.

• Pick the right moments. While customers were open to this technology in theory, research also suggested they didn’t want to be interrupted during online banking sessions.

My overarching insight was: “To befriend humans, Erica must intrigue - not intrude.” Our work involved a unified treatment across the bank’s channels and a national campaign. Our soft launch re-engaged lapsed users and drove non-users to download our app, increasing usage from 22MM to 24MM in six months.