DBS Bank hopes to be more pre-emptive in meeting its customers' needs, and is leveraging data analytics and artificial intelligence to make banking more effortless, says its head of big data and AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are driving many of DBS' consumer banking initiatives today as the bank seeks to reimagine the future of banking to remain relevant, said DBS managing director Soh Siew Choo at the IBM Think conference on Wednesday.
«AI helps us to hyper-personalize the customer experience. We embed ourselves in the journey of the customer, the most important stakeholder, to add value and meet their unanticipated needs,» said Soh, who leads DBS Bank’s big data and AI technology initiatives and oversees its consumer technology infrastructure.
According to her, the problem many banks face is legacy infrastructure and data silos, which inhibits the use of data at scale. As such, DBS created its own data-as-a-service platform in-house from open-source solutions. «We wanted the platform to be truly self-service so that we can empower every single employee of DBS to be able to use data and AI.»
The platform now serves hundreds of its staff, including data scientists, data engineers, and data analysts and runs many of its AI projects.
Building Capabilities
DBS has also been building up the data science capabilities of its staff. «We want every single developer in the bank to be a machine learning engineer,» Soh said.
She noted the skills gap that many banks face in meeting their technology demands today, but highlighted that women have a lot to contribute to this field, given their attention to detail and «softer touch.» which are the «keys to great customer experiences.»
