Singapore-based lender OCBC announced Wednesday that it will avail a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to its 30,000 employees globally in November to assist them with writing, research and ideation.
The deployment of the chatbot, a collaboration between Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI and OCBC, aims to further boost productivity and better serve customers, OCBC said in a statement.
According to the statement, OCBC ChatGPT is powered by ChatGPT’s Large Language Models, which analyze queries and produce fully fleshed-out answers and results based on accessible text-based information on the web.
It is noted that the bank-wide roll-out comes after a six-month trial (April – September 2023) involving about 1,000 OCBC staff across multiple functions including investment research, product management and marketing.
They had used OCBC GPT in areas such as writing of investment research reports, translating of content in multiple languages and drafting of customer responses.
On average, participants of the trial had shared that they were able to complete their tasks about 50 percent faster than previously. This included time taken to check OCBC GPT’s output to ensure factual accuracy.
Prior to the launch of OCBC GPT, OCBC had deployed several generative AI productivity tools to develop code, summarize documents, transcribe calls and create an internal knowledge base.
“We are excited to be one of the first banks in the world to deploy generative AI tools at scale,” said Donald MacDonald, OCBC’s Head of Group Data Office.
“We believe that these tools have the potential to transform the way our employees work by automating a wide range of time- consuming tasks, freeing up their time to focus on more strategic and value-added work,
“This in turn helps us provide better customer service by spending more time building relationships with customers and developing innovative products and services,” he added.
According to the statement, the use of generative AI builds on OCBC’s earlier investments in AI.
Using AI, personalised recommendations and insights are pushed to customers through the mobile banking app.
250 million of these insights are sent yearly to help customers save time and effort as well as improve their financial management.
AI is also harnessed to enhance the bank’s anti-money laundering efforts.
Through an AI-powered platform, OCBC can quickly analyse customer profiles and networks, identifying suspicious communities and transactions.
It is noted that in 2019, OCBC was the first Singapore bank to launch a postgraduate AI scholarship to nurture a pipeline of AI talent.
In the same year, the bank launched its Data Certification Pathway to groom data professionals in house through a 12-to-18-month training. More than 300 staff have since completed this program.
In 2018, OCBC was the first bank in Singapore to launch a dedicated AI Lab to strategically develop in-house AI capabilities, which has since been subsumed within the Group Data Office.
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