"Octi" is a Gen AI feature created during AI-Hacathon event Happened in July 2023.
The concept won the 1st prize in the category of "Gen AI product for the financial market".
Later on, this project turned into a service product Amdocs presented to customers in the finance industry and was part of the company presentation during MONEY20/20 conference in Las Vegas.
Background and needs
During 2023, Amdocs, who regularly specializes in the global Telco industry, entered new markets and looked for Opportunities for integrations with Financial corps such as banks and credit companies.
"Octi" is a financial concierge service powered by AI and integrated into applications and loyalty services of such companies, enabling the execution of complex operations across various domains.
A concierge acts as a personal assistant, handling various tasks for clients across multiple fields, typically offered by financial companies to their premium customers. The project's goal was to make this service available to middle-class customers through Gen-AI technology.
Octi leverages customer banking data to make informed decisions on purchases, identifying the best options and payment methods to benefit the customer
Concept creation during hackathon day
The team began with brainstorming to find innovative solutions for the finance market. we chose to go with "AI premium assistant" whose purpose is to help perform complex purchasing and provide a solution for the best options based on customer financial data, loyalty clubs, and the cards they own.
The concept required research across banking apps in the US market and some feasibility checking. due to privacy constraints, the research cannot be fully displayed here but I will gladly share insights during a face-to-face meeting.
Given the product's capability to handle numerous tasks simultaneously, we chose an octopus as the brand Character and face of the product. We named it Octi.
During hackathon day, The team divided to 3 duos:
1- User journey team: Finalizing the flow, required screens & features, and general planning of how the product is operated by the user.
2- Design team: Designing UI screens of the app and Octi's character image using AI engines. The chosen figure took the form of a friendly and smiling pink octopus.
3 - Pitch team: Planning the story-telling methods, building the narrative and business story, and creating the deck presented to the judges.
The use case presented features a user journey who plans a family vacation with Octi's assistance through a voice prompt. Based on the user's request, Octi provides several deals and options tailored to the user's budget and credit score.
The service finds the most affordable (though not necessarily the cheapest) flight, followed by a suitable hotel. Additionally, an option was introduced to find restaurants and attractions during the vacation in real-time.
Our final product from the hackathon got much praise and won 1st place among 8 projects presented.
Next phases of the project:
turning the output into a concept product: In the following weeks after the hackathon, the concept received great interest and echoed across the organization. I was asked to produce a new variation of "Octi" to feature a demo Amdocs presented to Bank Hapoalim (The largest bank in IL) as part of a very large-scale bid
in a short time, a rebrand was carried out per the bank's loyalty app, an adaptation of the product and its screens to an Israeli target audience.
Later, out of the company's desire to offer the service to more potential customers, additional alignments and enhancements were made to transform the concept design to align it with the organization's DS and make it part of a bundle of products Amdocs presented to financial clients.
Octi's character was changed to give him a less childish look, and it now becomes a flat iconic character.
Creating a promotion video: during October 2023, the project was part of the products and features presented by Amdocs at the MONEY 20/20 conference in Las Vegas, and for this event, a short video was created presenting the product and its technological capabilities (video in the top of this page).
In the following months, the business idea was introduced in almost every sales process presented by the company, not only in the finance industry.
Example from another project for the Philippine tech corp PLDT. can be shown here.
