Mastercard has announced plans to roll out artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots for banks to enable them to deliver personalized experiences to consumers.

The company is developing bots for both its merchant and bank partners, which will use chat, messaging and natural language interfaces to communicate with consumers.

It's bot for banks, Mastercard KAI, is aimed at extending its services  to customers on messaging platforms.

In the current pilot testing on Messenger,  Mastercard has partnered with Kasisto, the company that created KAI Banking,  the conversational AI platform.

The company said that its Mastercard KAI is powered by KAI Banking’s deep knowledge in financial services and conversational AI.

The bot will be able to fulfill customer requests and solve problems, allowing banks to improve customer experiences.

Starting early 2017, consumers based in the US can ask the bot questions about their accounts, review purchase history and monitor spending levels.

Kasisto CEO and co-founder Zor Gorelov said: “This bot enables entirely new experiences, bringing Mastercard benefits and offers to consumers with human-like conversations that are personal and contextual.

“We’re powering conversational commerce, anytime, anywhere – just as consumers have come to expect.”

The company said Mastercard KAI will eventually roll out to the 1 billion people who use Messenger every month.

Separately, Mastercard has partnered with Fit Pay to bring its contactless payments to consumer wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The Fit Pay platform is expected to reduce the time-to-market, cost and complexity of payment and authentication services for wearable device manufacturers.

Fit Pay co-founder and chief executive officer Michael Orlando said: “Working alongside Mastercard, Fit Pay’s platform can seamlessly add contactless payment capabilities to wearable devices, increasing consumer engagement, creating new revenue streams, and making their devices indispensable.”

Image: MasterCard at MWC 2016 Booth. Photo: courtesy of MasterCard.