SMEs make up 97 per cent of businesses in New Zealand, yet this market is often under-served and under-informed Lewis Billinghurst, Westpac NZ Westpac NZ has tapped Auckland-based artificial intelligence software company, Aider, to provide conversational digital assistance to its small and medium-sized enterprise customers. The collaboration with Westpac’s Digital Ventures team aims to help business owners make fast, data-led decisions to improve their efficiency and bottom line. Westpac’s 85,000 SME customers can also use Aider’s “Contact Me” function if they need to speak with a bank representative. Lewis Billinghurst, Westpac NZ Head of Digital Ventures, says SMEs make up 97 per cent of businesses in New Zealand, yet this market is 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 says. Aider will provide a subscription service, with Westpac customers getting a 90-day free trial and an early access pricing of $39.99 a month from there on. Aider is a mobile, digital assistant that connects to the apps SMEs use to run their businesses, to deliver easy access to answers, all from one place. Business app connections include point of sale, accounting, payroll, rostering, online calendar, social media, analytics. You can ask your total expenditure for the last week or your top selling products for the day – and get instant access to the data you need Pete Weaver, Aider The Aider ecosystem includes Xero, QuickBooks Online, Kounta, Vend, Twitter and Google Analytics. Using Aider’s mobile app, customers can ask questions by typing, voice-to-text or speaking through a voice assistant, like Alexa or Google Assistant. Aider can answer hundreds of questions a business owner might have, including: ? “Hey Aider, how much revenue did I make this week?” ? “Who showed up for work today?” ? “Aider, get someone at Westpac to contact me” (an upcoming feature) ? “How many UberEats sales have I made this month?” ? “What were my top selling products today?” Aider also has “built in” connections to weather, events and news apps. Constantly learning and growing its knowledge base, Aider can also schedule notifications, put reminders in the user’s calendar, and will deliver trends analysis and benchmarking. “We believe in human-centric AI and created Aider to give small business owners easy access to the information they need to make better business decisions,” says Aider cofounder, Pete Weaver. “With the Aider app, you simply ask for what you want – whether it’s your total expenditure for the last week or your top selling products for the day – and get instant access to the data you need.” He says as AI continues to progress, the Aider team could eventually use its machine learning technology to train Aider to answer questions important to Westpac customers. The company, co-founded in Auckland in 2017 by Weaver and Brendan Roberts, is targeting the retail and hospitality market in Australasia, with plans to expand to different industries and locations. No caption Sign up for CIO newsletters for regular updates on CIO news, career tips, views and events. Follow CIO New Zealand on Twitter:@cio_nz Send news tips and comments to divina_paredes@idg.co.nz @divinap Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP Generative AI’s ‘show me the money’ moment We’re past the hype and slick gen AI sales pitches. Business leaders want results. By Julia White Nov 30, 2023 5 mins Artificial Intelligence brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers capture real economic value with zero trust Unleashing economic value: Zscaler's Zero Trust Exchange transforms security architecture while cutting costs. By Zscaler Nov 30, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Sponsored by SAP A cloud-based solution to rescue millions from energy poverty Aware of the correlation between energy and financial poverty, Savannah Energy is helping to generate clean, competitively priced electricity across Africa by integrating its old systems into one cloud-based platform. By Keith E. Greenberg, SAP Contributor Nov 30, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation feature 8 change management questions every IT leader must answer Designed to speed adoption and achieve business outcomes, change management hasn’t historically been a strength of IT orgs. It’s time to flip that script by asking hard questions to hone change strategies. By Stephanie Overby Nov 30, 2023 10 mins Change Management Change Management IT Operations Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe