Singapore's OCBC is to roll out a generative artificial intelligence chatbot to all of its 30,000 employees to assist them with writing, research and ideas for new innovations.
The deployment of the chatbot, a collaboration between Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI and OCBC that uses ChatGPT's Large Language Models, aims to further boost productivity and better serve customers.
The bank-wide roll-out comes after a six-month trial involving about 1,000 OCBC staff across multiple functions including investment research, product management and marketing. The bot was deployed in areas such as writing of investment research reports, translating of content in multiple languages and drafting of customer responses. On average, participants said that they were able to complete their tasks about 50 per cent 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, summarise documents, transcribe calls and create an internal knowledge base. These tools have similarly boosted productivity by as high as 50 per cent.
Currently, more than four million decisions - in processes such as risk management, customer service and sales - are made by AI in the Bank daily. This is projected to increase to 10 million by 2025.
Donald MacDonald, OCBC’s head of group data office, says: “We are excited to be one of the first banks in the world to deploy generative AI tools at scale. 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.”