The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Bank of America, Capital One Financial, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 2018 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Bank of America Corp. BAC, Capital One Financial Corp. COF, Citigroup Inc. C and JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM.

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

4 Stocks in Focus as A.I. Bots Enter U.S. Financial System

America’s financial industry is making impressive advances to implement artificial intelligence (AI) in its various operations. These initiatives are intended to enable easier machine-assisted functioning and improve performance delivery to its customers.

AI’s assistance in terms of accuracy, efficiency and speed are fundamental necessities for any financial system. Consequently, the ability of machine-learning algorithms to improve themselves based on their study of data and trends with minimal human intervention could benefit financial institutions massively.

As more financial firms turn their attention to AI-enabled chat bots and virtual/voice assistants, it would be prudent to keep a few financial stocks in your watch-list. Notably, we are focusing on those that could significantly benefit from the growing prospects of AI implementations in America’s financial industry.

Financial Services Witnessing AI Revolution

Companies worldwide are adapting newer, more-complex business models to perform their day-to-day operations. Since this often involves faster monetary transactions, financial services firms need to increasingly focus on creating improved customer experiences.

The improvement in customer services on a larger scale demands efficiency and accuracy. It also requires the ability to interpret personal data effectively, qualities only AI technologies can provide.

Per a Narrative Science report, AI could help customers take the right financial decisions based on augmented recommendations. Specific apps such as Simple and Moven allow users to track their spending and increase savings. This is accomplished via personalized, automated recommendations through a specialized debit card linked to the apps.

AI-Powered Assistance Could be the Differentiator

According to Nigel Rayner, research firm Gartner’s vice president: “By 2020, embedded AI will become a key differentiating factor in finance systems evaluations, and vendors with this capability will be able to highlight greater functional advantages.”

AI-powered assistance could range from simple customer support to complex algorithm implementations such as robo advisors. These are online wealth management services entirely automated and operating by virtue of its underlying algorithm alone without human help.

Asset/investment management, portfolio management, natural language processing and fraud detection and anti-money laundering are other areas where artificial intelligence could help ease operations.

Stocks in Focus

We have hand-picked a few financial stocks for you to monitor as these have already implemented AI into their operations or are currently working on it.

Bank of America Corp.is one of the world's leading financial institutions. The bank carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and its Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has risen 1.1% for the current year in the last 60 days.

Bank of America uses Erica, an AI-powered chat assistant to assist its 25 million mobile clients.

Capital One Financial Corp.is a financial holding company. The financial firm carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and its Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has increased 2.6% for this year in the past two months.

Capital One launched its text-based virtual assistant called Eno earlier this year. The company claims that Eno can study and learn individual consumer behavior and adapt itself according to personal needs over time.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Citigroup Inc.is a global financial services company. The bank carries a Zacks Rank #2 and its Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has advanced 1.8% for the current year in the last 60 days.

Citi bank has launched its first chatbot called Citi Bot SG for Facebook Messenger in Singapore, an AI-enabled chat assistant to assist its Singaporean clients ahead of a wider implementation worldwide.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.is a financial services firm. The company carries a Zacks Rank #2 and its Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has risen 1.4% for 2018 in the past two months.

JPMorgan Chase is currently working on its new AI-enabled virtual assistant that it plans to launch next year.

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