OCBC launches a ChatGPT-based bot to assist employees and increase productivity

Singapore-based Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) recently announced the launch of a new generative AI chatbot based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The goal of the move is to help the bank’s employees by allowing them to transfer certain duties, such as writing, research, and coming up with ideas for new innovations, onto the bot.

OCBC’s new AI tool increased employees’ speed by 50%

OCBC created the new generative AI tool in partnership with Microsoft’s Azure Open AI, which provided ChatGPT’s Large Language Models. The product just completed a six-month-long trial period during which over 1,000 members of OCBC staff used it. This included employees in various functions, such as marketing, investment research, and product management.

Many among the staff members commented that the bot — deployed to boost productivity and provide better service to the bank’s customers — increased their productivity by 50% on average. It was used to write investment research reports, draft customer responses, and translate content into various languages.

The bank’s employees said that they were able to complete their tasks and duties 50% faster than before, even when the time needed to check the bot’s work was included. This suggests that, even if employees needed to make some corrections of the bot’s work, they were still twice as productive as before it was put at their disposal.

Not the first AI tool used by OCBC

OCBC has had contact with AI tools even before the launch of OCBC GPT. It actually deployed several generative AI productivity tools, which allowed it to develop code, transcribe calls, summarize documents, and build a vast internal knowledge base. These tools also contributed to around 50% increase in productivity, showing the great potential of AI technology in terms of improving everyday business.

At this point in time, the Bank is using AI technology to make over four million decisions on a daily basis. Artificial intelligence is processing customer service requests, sales details, risk management, and more. However, this is only the beginning, as estimates say that the number of decisions processed daily will skyrocket to 10 million per day by 2025.

The bank’s head of group data office, Donald MacDonald, commented on the move, stating that the OCBC is excited to be among the first banks in the world to use generative AI tools in a bank-wide rollout. He added that the bank believes that the tools have the potential to transform the way employees work. It will fully automate a wide range of tasks that are slow, monotonous, and time-consuming, which will allow employees more time to focus on more important work that will add greater value to the company and achieve some of its strategic goals.

As a result, the bank will become better at providing its services to the customers, spend more time building relationships with them, and create more new, better products and services.