NatWest’s generative AI team is looking at hundreds of applications for the technology throughout the bank, and categorizing the use cases is part of the strategy.
“What’s happening now is that we’re actually moving out of the hype phase and moving more into the enablement phase [of generative AI],” Jonathan Hall, head of digital, commercial and institutions at NatWest, said today during the Fintech Futures webinar on real-world use cases for AI within financial services.
The $890 billion bank expects to invest $4.2 billion into its operations as part of its digital efforts between 2023 and 2025, Chief Financial Officer Katie Murray said during NatWest’s second quarter earnings call.
In the third quarter, the $890 billion bank focused on data and technology improvements “to improve efficiency and strengthen our focus on simplification and productivity, Chief Executive Paul Thwaite said during the October earnings call. This year, the bank has integrated payments platform Icon Payments Framework, Amazon Web Services’ personalized banking tool and digital customer verification platform OneID.
The London-based NatWest bank categorizes generative AI uses in four ways:
1. Personalization. NatWest has one generative AI pilot in place in its consumer-facing chatbot, Hall said. The bank embedded IBM’s watsonx into its chatbot experience in August.
The gen AI-driven consumer-facing bot is being monitored by NatWest employees until trust can be established, Hall said.
Before creating further consumer-facing gen AI uses, the bank needs to be “very, very confident in the data quality and data control,” he said.
2. Protection. While NatWest already uses AI for fraud protection and anti-money laundering monitoring, gen AI offers an opportunity to add another layer of fraud detection, Hall said, noting, the bank is working on what application would look like.
3. Efficiency. The bank is also looking to gen AI for operational efficiency, Hall said. NatWest has a lot of data across many platforms and the technology can help the bank analyze and understand it, saving money and time.
4. Workforce knowledge. Generative AI can be used to improve NatWest employees’ access to knowledge, provide real-time solutions and boost productivity, Hall said.
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