U.S. Bank Launches Nation’s First Spanish-Language Voice Assistant for Banking

We are making it easier and simpler for our Spanish-speaking customers to bank digitally

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. Bank is the first financial institution in the United States to offer an experience Spanish-speaking customers have never had before: the ability to bank via mobile app in their preferred language – just by speaking it.¹

U.S. Bank has launched Asistente Inteligente de U.S. Bank™, a Spanish-language version of our best-in-class Smart Assistant in the U.S. Bank Mobile App. Smart Assistant is one of just two banking voice assistants awarded Corporate Insight’s highest rating of “Excellent,” and Asistente Inteligente has all the same features and functionality as the popular English language version.

Customers who set their language preference to Spanish in the U.S. Bank Mobile App will now be able to do dozens of things – like check their balance and transactions, transfer and send money, track their credit score, lock and unlock their card, make payments, and quickly search for and complete many other functions – just by talking into their smartphone in Spanish. And if they’d prefer to text instead of talk, Asistente Inteligente supports that too.¹

“Asistente Inteligente is the first Spanish language virtual assistant of its kind in the United States, offering Spanish-speaking customers the very best digital banking tools from U.S. Bank,” said Dominic Venturo, chief digital officer at U.S. Bank. “This not only builds on U.S. Bank Access Commitment™, our long-term approach to help diverse customers build wealth, but also demonstrates our continued emphasis on putting customer experience first, by creating new digital tools that enable them to bank however, whenever and wherever is best for them.”

A standard of high quality

Asistente Inteligente was launched with the expertise of Spanish speakers, and Hispanic employees in the U.S. Bank Nosotros Latinos Business Resource Group helped test it, to ensure customers always experience the proper language usage in its proper context. U.S. Bank designers and developers took great care to ensure accuracy and a consistent tone and nomenclature.

“Translation apps sometimes struggle to decipher words with more than one meaning, such as ‘balance’ – are we talking about your equilibrium or how much money is in your account?” said Richard Weeks, head of conversational experiences and capabilities at U.S. Bank. “Our software engineers solved for that through a hybrid approach using smart technology, natural language processing and real-time interpretation.”

By talking or texting with Asistente Inteligente, Spanish speaking customers have an incredibly easy and simple way to navigate the numerous features of the award-winning U.S. Bank Mobile App.² It’s part of the bank’s broader effort to provide leading Spanish-language digital capabilities to Hispanic customers.

“Sometimes language can be a barrier to accessing best-in-class financial services, and U.S. Bank is focused on eliminating barriers,” said Ramiro Padilla Klein, U.S. Bank vice president for Hispanic segment strategy. “Asistente Inteligente is an innovative first-in-the-industry technology, which shows Latino and Hispanic Americans that we’re here for them. They can confidently ask questions in their preferred language with this new financial tool.”

Meeting diverse needs

Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the United States - more than 13% of the population uses it, according to the U.S. Census.

Service in Spanish is Hispanic customers’ second-highest priority when choosing a bank, behind only branch location, according to MRI-Simmons’ National Consumer Study.

When it comes to digital banking, mobile devices play a larger role for Hispanic adults compared with white adults. A quarter of Hispanics are “smartphone-only” internet users – meaning they own a smartphone but don’t have traditional home broadband services, according to a Pew Research Center survey. That is compared with just 12% of white adults and 17% of Black adults.

“Asistente Inteligente is not only cutting-edge technology,” Padilla Klein said, “but precisely the kind of technology Hispanic Americans find particularly valuable.”

About U.S. Bank

U.S. Bancorp, with nearly 70,000 employees and $587 billion in assets as of March 31, 2022, is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association. The Minneapolis-based company serves millions of customers locally, nationally and globally through a diversified mix of businesses: Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; Corporate & Commercial Banking; and Wealth Management and Investment Services. The company has been recognized for its approach to digital innovation, social responsibility, and customer service, including being named one of the 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies and Fortune’s most admired superregional bank. Learn more at usbank.com/about.

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1. Some services may only be available in English. 2. Industry benchmarking firm Keynova Group ranked U.S. Bank No. 1 for mobile app in its Q1 2022 Mobile Banker Scorecard. Member FDIC.