NatWest becomes first UK bank to partner with OpenAI to accelerate AI transformation
NatWest has become the first UK-headquartered bank to partner with OpenAI as it looks to accelerate its adoption of AI “to meet customers’ needs faster and more effectively, and to increase productivity and efficiency across the bank”.
NatWest enters “wide-ranging, large scale” collab with OpenAI
As part of a “wide-ranging, large scale” collaboration, the group is set to deploy OpenAI’s generative AI technology, with the bank citing its digital assistant services as “a key area of focus”.
These services currently include consumer-facing chatbot Cora+, which was developed with IBM’s Watsonx platform and launched in July last year, as well as AskArchie+, a chatbot service used solely by the bank’s employees.
OpenAI’s technology will be used to assist customers with “more complex tasks, including the identification, reporting and resolution of fraud and scams”, the bank says.
NatWest adds that it “believes there is opportunity to leverage digital assistants to help customers better understand their financial position, using AI and help them to plan and set goals for the future”.
Meanwhile, the bank says OpenAI’s tech will be integrated into AskArchie+ to help the bank’s staff with “fraud prevention and complaints handling across its Retail, Commercial and Wealth businesses”.
NatWest’s partnership with OpenAI comes amid the 275+ AI projects currently being explored by the group, with “around 25” additional use cases said to be in production.
Scott Marcar, CIO at NatWest, claims that the technology is “already playing a vital role in our digital transformation”, allowing the delivery of services “in a more personalised and productive way”.
“Our work with OpenAI will take this even further through redefined digital experiences and helping to offer even better protection from threats like fraud and financial crime,” adds retail banking CEO Angela Byrne.
