‘Transformational’: Why bank bosses can’t resist the AI craze

The bank already uses AI to sift through millions of data points to bowl up financial tips or reminders to customers. But as the technology becomes more advanced, it wants to make these interactions more personalised, in the hope that makes people more loyal as bank customers. It is far from alone in this fight: CBA’s rivals have also invested heavily in systems that can sift through reams of data and with the goal helping people better manage their money.

Second, CBA showed how an AI “chatbot” could be used to help call centre staff find answers to complex questions more quickly, rather than trawling through the bank’s voluminous policy documents. The bank presented this as a way to improve back-office efficiency, but these are the sorts of changes that raise obvious questions about robots taking white-collar jobs.

When asked directly about the risk of AI bots eventually replacing staff, Comyn emphasised the bank’s focus was on customer service. But he did not shy away from the possibility there could be big changes on the horizon, either.

“We are primarily oriented around how we can serve our customers, protect from scams, fraud, but I do think the technology that we’ve seen over the last six to nine months has the potential to be quite transformational,” Comyn said.

CBA employs about 7000 engineers who write code, and Comyn said there was now software that generated code, which gave the bank some “enormous opportunities” to improve.

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NAB’s McEwan also highlighted the potential efficiency gains from AI last week, saying technology could save staff time by documenting their conversations with customers, for example.

But against the potential gains in productivity, there are clearly risks to banks and big business from AI, too.

McEwan last week said his big fear was AI being used to do “the wrong thing” with customer data, while Comyn also raised concerns, including how technology could be able to mimic peoples’ voices.

Given such risks, Comyn said some form of regulation was inevitable and desirable. “I think governments and regulators around the world are thinking about what does this mean? What are the risks, what are the opportunities?” Comyn said.

What about the risk that AI becomes so proficient at replacing human workers that it becomes a huge job destroyer?

Banks and other big companies have been using “chatbots” for years – often to perform jobs that used to be performed by humans. So far at least, the mantra from CEOs is that this has freed up staff to concentrate on other less routine tasks.

Comyn conceded it was “natural” for people to have concerns about the potential for technology to destroy jobs, but he didn’t see AI as “fundamentally disruptive” to people’s jobs in the short term.

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Bank bosses are generally keen to tell their investors about how they can save money to boost shareholder returns, but so far, none of the majors have outlined plans to launch large cost-cutting programs thanks to AI.

Indeed, CBA and NAB have been keen to order their staff back to the office for more of the week, with CBA this week saying it wants workers in office blocks 50 per cent of the time.

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