Suara Sherif
DigivantPay has challenged its customer service team to embrace artificial intelligence without losing the human touch, as the microfinance bank marked Customer Service Week with a training focused on the future of customer experience.
The bank’s Chief Technology Officer, Tolulope Awoade, urged agents to adapt to AI trends while handling complaints, using data to turn customer feedback into insights that reduce recurring issues.
“We live in a data-generated generation. Data from customer complaints and experiences has helped us get to where we are today,” he said.
Awoade stressed that AI should be a tool, not a replacement.
“We should control AI responses rather than letting them control us.
AI should be used to ease our job, not take it,” he told the team at the bank’s headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos.
The message was echoed by Group Head, Customer Experience, Annette Nwokedi, who noted that while AI can improve service delivery, the human factor remains essential to de-escalating customer challenges.
She urged agents to adopt a modern customer experience mindset that preempts problems and delivers quicker solutions. Faith Aliga, Head of Customer Experience, said agents must go the extra mile.
“Customers’ expectations have changed significantly over the past two decades. They want fast, simple, transparent and convenient service,” she said. “It is not always okay to serve customers and leave it there. We are expected to go the extra mile.”
Aliga, who recently won the 2026 African Service Excellence Award in Johannesburg, also advised agents to have an ownership mindset and use technology to solve basic issues before escalating them.
Customer Experience Team Lead Chinenye Nwabekeh added that a seamless experience is the bedrock of patronage today, noting that informing customers ahead of potential challenges fosters trust.
For DigivantPay, the training was more than a Customer Service Week ritual.
It was a statement that in the age of AI, the best customer experience is still powered by people who care, and tools that help them care better.
