Virtual employees take over mundane tasks as Nordea Bank pushes ahead with AI

Denmark’s Nordea Bank is forging ahead with a programme of introducing AI “virtual employees” to perform simple repetitive tasks in some areas of its business. The company claims that the AI system in the Nordea Liv life insurance and pensions business, for example, performs tasks 80% faster than a human and with 0% errors.

 

75% of bank employees believe main customer services will be performed by AI within three years

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Nordea Bank was quick to get on board with technology, setting up a digital hub in 2009, and has achieved substantial efficiency gains by using technology as an “employee”.

Staff at Nordea Liv collaborate with “virtual colleagues” via computer terminals. The company claims this has improved the efficiency and accuracy of operations by reducing the amount of time that tends to be lost and errors that tend to occur in interactions between human colleagues.

In Japan, Mizuho Bank is deploying IBM’s Watson cognitive technology to automate its call centre and customer service operations. Nordea is planning to progress in the same direction by deploying more advanced AI technology.

A recent survey by consulting firm Accenture reveals that 75% of bank employees anticipate that AI will cut the time required for user interface and will make customers feel more like they are dealing with a human being than a machine, and that the main elements of banks’ customer service will be performed by AI within three years.

This might make people fear that they will lose their jobs to robots, but Mattias Fras, Group Head of Robotics Strategy & Innovation at Nordea Bank, emphasises the coexistence between humans and technology, pointing out that it is people who both develop and manage robots.

(By ZUU)

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