The rollout of this chatbot for staff – including those at the private bank – is an example of how AI tools are an increasingly significant part of the banking and finance landscape.

OCBC is making a generative artificial intelligence chatbot for its 30,000 employees globally in November to assist them with writing, research and idea creation. It is an example of how AI affects the bank and wealth management sectors.

The rollout will include staff at Bank of Singapore, OCBC told WealthBriefingAsia when asked.

“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,” Donald MacDonald, OCBC’s head of group data office, said in a statement yesterday. â€śThis in turn helps us provide better customer service by spending more time building relationships with customers and developing innovative products and services.” 

The deployment of the chatbot, a collaboration between Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI and OCBC, comes after a six-month trial (April to 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 content in multiple languages and drafting customer responses. 

On average, participants of the trial 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.

The use of generative AI builds on OCBC’s earlier investments in AI. 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. 

The way that AI does or does not affect banking, wealth management and asset management is a key issue. This news service has published editorial on the topic here, here and here. 

Among various examples, HSBC Global Private Banking and EquBot have launched the Artificial Intelligence Powered Global Opportunities Index. This is a rules-based investment strategy featuring IBM Watson’s AI engine and other patented technologies to turn data into investment insights. In the US, Widom Tree has partnered with NASDAQ and the Consumer Technology Association to develop a bespoke index that identifies and classifies AI-focussed companies, providing a “pure AI investment exposure,” to quote the firm’s website.

In early March, Salesforce Ventures, the company’s global investment arm, launched a new $250 million generative AI fund to bolster the startup ecosystem and spark the development of responsible generative AI.

This news service has carried research and commentary on how different parts of the wealth sector will benefit â€“ by crunching data for KYC checks and flagging potential issues, for example.