NatWest Group has significantly expanded its utilization of artificial intelligence across various aspects of its operations, with a focus on enhancing customer service, document management within its wealth management sector, and software development. Chief Information Officer Scott Marcar highlighted in a blog post that the year 2025 marked the widespread deployment of these AI systems, aimed at boosting productivity and enhancing customer engagement.
Generative AI has been integrated into the customer service domain, particularly in the form of Cora, the bank’s digital assistant. The implementation of generative AI has expanded the range of customer journeys supported by Cora from four to 21, resulting in faster issue resolution times and decreased reliance on human intervention. Additionally, a new agentic financial assistant powered by OpenAI models has been introduced to 25,000 customers, enabling them to inquire about recent transactions and spending patterns in natural language through the bank’s app.
The next phase involves incorporating voice-to-voice capabilities into the system, allowing customers to report suspected fraud and manage related cases seamlessly. AI has significantly optimized internal customer service operations, with automated call summaries and complaint drafting tools in the retail division saving over 70,000 hours of staff time. These tools generate summaries of customer calls to facilitate written responses to complaints effectively.
All of NatWest’s approximately 60,000 employees now have access to AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot Chat and the bank’s proprietary LLM. Over half of the staff have undergone additional training beyond the basic modules provided. In the private banking and wealth management sectors, AI is leveraged to streamline document management and client records, enabling relationship managers to generate summaries of meetings and documents swiftly. This has resulted in a 30% increase in client-facing time for advisers.
The bank has revamped its data infrastructure to support these advancements, consolidating its data estate to create unified customer views and migrating workloads to Amazon Web Services. This transition has facilitated the implementation of summarization tools and conversational systems in customer service. AI is also heavily integrated into software development, with AI coding tools assisting the bank’s engineers in drafting, reviewing, and testing software. The bank has hired nearly 1,000 graduate software engineers in India and the UK to bolster its development capabilities.
AI-powered analytics for fraud detection and risk monitoring have been instrumental in identifying irregular activities and notifying customers promptly. NatWest has established an AI research office focusing on cutting-edge technologies like audiovisual conversational systems and proprietary language models. Governance structures have been formalized through an AI and Data Ethics Code of Conduct, and the bank is participating in the Financial Conduct Authority’s Live AI Testing program.
In conclusion, AI has become an integral part of NatWest’s operations, driving efficiency gains and productivity enhancements across customer service, wealth management, and software development. The widespread deployment of AI across tens of thousands of employees and customer interactions signifies its integration into the bank’s operational framework. (Image source: Pixabay)
For further insights on AI and big data from industry experts, consider attending the AI & Big Data Expo hosted in Amsterdam, California, and London as part of TechEx. This comprehensive event, co-located with other leading technology conferences, offers a wealth of knowledge. Visit the event’s website for more details. AI News is proudly presented by TechForge Media. Explore upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars on their platform for additional valuable information.
Be the first to comment