Westpac NZ has struck an agreement with Auckland based AI company Aider under which it will promote the Aider AI based assistant for small business to its 85,000 SME customers.
Access is being provided through collaboration with Westpac Digital Ventures. In addition to gaining access to the standard range of Aider’s functions they will be able to use its ‘contact me’ function to speak to a Westpac representative.
Aider is a smartphone app integrated with a range of other applications that enables users to make spoken queries about the state of their business and get intelligent responses.
Aider says the app can provide information on sales, staffing, cashflow, marketing and more by answering questions such as: What are my operating expenses? What are my top-selling products this month? How much revenue did I make this week? When is my GST due?
According to Aider, the app can: schedule, automate and action business task; monitor and predict a business’ social media performance: track, analyse and automate sales
and business tasks.
Apps integrated with Aider include Xero, QuickBooks Online, Kounta, Vend, Twitter and Google Analytics, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Deputy, iPayroll and others. Up to 14 can be used.
Today, Aider targets the retail and hospitality market in Australia and New Zealand but says it plans to expand to different industries and locations.
Also, as AI develops Aider says the app could be trained to answer questions important to Westpac customers.
Westpac NZ head of Digital Ventures, Lewis Billinghurst, said SMEs make up 97 percent of businesses in New Zealand, but are often under-served and under-informed.
“We see great value in being able to introduce SMEs to artificial intelligence in an easily-consumed format,” he said.
Aider presently costs $39.99 per month but is available on a 30 day free trial (Westpac customers get 90 days).
costs A free three-month trial will be available to Westpac NZ customers.
Aider is available from the Google Play and Apple App stores.