Nevertheless, in my opinion the degree of satisfaction in any interaction mostly depends on the degree of emotional involvement with your interlocutor. I mean, when you are doing traditional online banking with those textual and graphic screens, you only expect non-emotional attributes from the interaction, such as simplicity, security, response time and accuracy. But when you are interacting with an avatar, you also expect understanding, kindness, proactivity, empathy… kind of affective engagement, at the end of the day.

Once avatars become able to generate trustworthiness in their interaction with the customers, I’m sure greater levels of trust and literacy with financial matters will come effortlessly.

PS While talking with colleagues from the financial sector, I had to hear somebody comparing avatars with “blow-up dolls”, as fakes of real human interaction. Hopefully our customers’ judgment is different!