‘Six days to one hour’
Westpac is jumping on the artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon after partnering with global professional services company Accenture. The Big Four bank has been using AI-powered agents for software programming but is now looking at how the technology can be deployed across the business.
It has developed an Australian-first agentic AI tool, which uses sophisticated reasoning to solve complex, multi-step problems. Westpac’s general manager for data platforms, Pieter Vorster, said the sky was the limit with what the bank could use it for.
“The application of these agents is growing across the bank, and we have identified multiple use cases,” he said.
“Products, customer services, scams and fraud are all part of the mix. Its potential is bank-wide.”
Agentic AI can ingest huge amounts of data from multiple sources and then use that information to identify problems, develop strategies and execute tasks.
For example, Westpac revealed that an AI agent was able to knock out a task in just one hour, which would normally take a human engineer about six days to complete.
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The bank is hoping that it will be able to use the technology for mortgage applications, compliance checks, signing customers up for a new account, checking over approval documentation and other tasks.
Vorster said recruiting AI to help with staff workflow would streamline certain processes.
“The biggest shift with agentic AI is getting autonomous squads of agents working together to fulfil a task – to actually do work for human beings, to understand language and instructions and work together to execute,” he said.
“This is unique; agents can work alongside teams, becoming quasi-employees.”
Accenture is working with several banks across the globe to help them with customer service, sales, compliance and knowledge management.
The Big Four banks are all dipping their toes into AI to see how it can transform the sector.
Earlier this month, CBA entered a five-year collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which it said would help accelerate the bank’s AI adoption, including the CommBiz Gen AI messaging service.
CommBank chief technology officer Rodrigo Castillo said harnessing AI could deliver “faster, safer and more personalised digital banking services” as customers increasingly turned to digital banking.
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