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Lloyds Banking Group is using AI to start personalising the services it offers to its customers \u00a9 Peter Nicholls\/Getty Images<\/p>\nBritain\u2019s big banks are using artificial intelligence to crack down on people trafficking, personalise customer investment choices and overhaul call centres.<\/p>\n
The latest wave of generative AI models are allowing lenders to go beyond traditional machine learning techniques, which have long been used to identify potential cases of fraud and assess credit risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Santander has developed an AI model trained to identify suspicious patterns of behaviour in accounts which could point to instances of people trafficking. According to Jas Narang, Santander UK\u2019s chief transformation, data and AI officer, banks have historically been slow to identify this sort of organised crime from customer data. \u201cIt has been a little bit hit and miss for all banks in the past,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd more importantly, it\u2019s not always been timely \u2014 it has been analysis [coming after] the event by which time criminals have moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n
However last year, the bank built an AI tool which was trained to pick up on certain \u201ctells\u201d that could indicate people trafficking \u2014 such as money being deposited into the account from several different locations within a few minutes of each other.<\/p>\n
Narang added the difference between traditional machine learning, which is used to analyse vast reams of data, and generative AI, is that the latter can make judgments in a more timely manner. \u201cThe difference between what was happening previously and now is the timeliness. It\u2019s picking up stuff whilst criminal activity is being perpetuated. So you can literally pick it up on the day.\u201d Since the rollout of the tool last year, the technology has allowed Santander to generate hundreds of leads indicating trafficking, which the lender then passed on to the authorities for further investigation.<\/p>\n
Beyond financial crime, banks are also using generative AI to reshape their consumer-facing services. Lloyds Banking Group is using AI to start personalising the services it offers to its customers.\u00a0Generative AI bots can scan and analyse data from customer accounts, such as transactions, savings and risk appetites, and use that to provide a personalised service.<\/p>\n
Ranil Boteju, chief data and analytics officer at the UK\u2019s biggest high street bank, says the aim is to bring the sort of bespoke financial advice the ultra-high net worth individuals receive to millions of users. <\/p>\n
This month, Lloyds announced that it was tasking 7,000 staff members with training up an automated financial assistant which could give advice on managing finances to clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lloyds Banking Group is using AI to start personalising the services it offers to its customers \u00a9 Peter Nicholls\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The \u2018agentic AI\u2019 assistant \u2014 the term given to models which are set up to behave autonomously \u2014 is being tested and is expected to be rolled out next year. Customers will be able to discuss certain payments with the financial assistant, but it will not be advising on any type of regulated activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boteju says Lloyds hopes to build on the model, allowing users to customise their preferences so that the assistant would then be able to act on their behalf with a series of \u201cpersonalised nudges\u201d, such as by putting savings into an Isa. \u201cIn the future, savings could be automatically invested into Isas if customers have agreed to it beforehand \u2014 which could help them better save for their future,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, it will provide the guidance, and then the difference with our agentic AI assistant is it will then start to take action on the customers\u2019 behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Marcar, NatWest\u2019s chief information officer, sees a similar pattern in how the technology will evolve: \u201cToday [AI] brings greater speed, personalisation and protection from online threats; tomorrow it will power even more seamless and hyper-personalised experiences as we advance next-generation AI capabilities to anticipate customer needs faster and more effectively than before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Generative AI has also transformed the due diligence involved in the lending process. While banks have long used machine learning software to analyse reams of financial data they already hold, generative AI can pull information from multiple different formats.<\/p>\n
One example is the due diligence required in lending to a commercial property client. \u201cBefore providing a loan,\u00a0lots of bank statements, reports, collateral and a whole host of other documents have to reviewed,\u201d says Boteju. \u201cYou end up with 10 or 15 different documents all in different formats. The real estate lender has to piece through those, look at them and because they\u2019re so un-standardised, traditional robotic process automation would never work, because everything\u2019s different. But with generative AI, you can now automate that\u00a0so it extracts all the key information, puts it in a simple format\u00a0\u2014 and so rather than the person having to do that over a course of an hour, it takes a couple of minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n