CBA - which owns ASB - is experimenting with advanced AI chatbots running on a new Amazon and Nvidia-powered system. Image / 123RF
CBA - which owns ASB - is experimenting with advanced AI chatbots running on a new Amazon and Nvidia-powered system. Image / 123RF
Commonwealth Bank of Australia - owner of ASB - is exploring the possibility of replacing thousands of its call centre staff with AI, according to an AFR report.
The bank, which has some 2400 local call centre staff, announced on Tuesday it’s conducting trials with a generative AI chatbot called“Hey CommBank”, testing the technology on employees of the bank who are also customers.
Could it happen on this side of the ditch?
“We believe it’s our people that set us apart at ASB and they’ll always be integral to our customer offering,” an ASB spokeswoman told the Herald.
“We continue to explore how advancements in tech, including AI, can support our people to do their jobs efficiently but have no plans to replace a large number of roles any time soon.
“We’re already using a range of technology, including AI, alongside our team, to enhance the experience we offer our customers. For example, our chatbot Josie has been supporting customers using our digital channels since 2018.”
"The reliability and accuracy of these AI voice solutions is still not quite good enough for prime-time," - artificial intelligence expert Ben Reid.
“There’s emerging evidence that AI-driven voice and chatbot interfaces, powered by frontier LLMs [large language models] such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude are approaching human-level capability interacting with human callers and resolving customer service inquiries first time,” said Ben Reid, the founding executive director of AI Forum NZ, who’s now running his own future technology consultancy, Memia.
“Clearly if this removes the need to wait on hold listening to muzak for hours then most people will welcome this as a positive development,” he says.
“But in reality, as with all AI solutions, the reliability and accuracy of these AI voice solutions is still not quite good enough for prime-time.”
"It is inevitable that AI will replace aspects of customer service – and many 'digital natives' would much prefer a high-quality chatbot than talking to a person. But we need to manage the transition fairly and justly," - Victoria University senior lecturer in artificial intelligence Andrew Lensen.
‘Inevitable’ - but be just and fair
“It is inevitable that AI will replace aspects of customer service,” Victoria University senior lecturer in artificial intelligence Andrew Lensen said.
“And for some customers, that’s a positive thing. Many ‘digital natives’ would much prefer a high-quality chatbot than talking to a person. But we need to manage the transition fairly and justly.”
CommBank’s announcement of its AI trial earlier this week drew fire from Australia’s Finance Sector Union, which said it was not consulted before the launch.
Finance Sector Union assistant secretary Nicole McPherson told the AFR the rollout of the new technology was “disrespectful and tricky”.
“I’ve been concerned about AI replacing jobs for a few years now – and it looks like it’s finally being publicly acknowledged. Salaries are some of the biggest costs to businesses, so I am not surprised to see a bank moving forward with replacing customer service with AI,” Lensen said.
“We can be sure that if the Aussie banks are exploring this, then it will affect Kiwis as well. After all, our banks are nearly all Australian-owned.
“What is the plan for workers who are being made redundant by AI? Will the banks help them to re/upskill? Are the Australian and New Zealand Governments prepared for what could be significant layoffs in the workforce (on top of the existing government cuts)? I don’t see anyone answering these questions – we need to take this very seriously as a society and the coalition Government needs to show leadership in addressing these real issues, rather than just promoting AI as being good for productivity and economic growth.”
Technology Minister Judith Collins sent a strategy paper to Cabinet centred on light policing of AI, saying new rules would stifle innovation at a time when New Zealand needed to catch up with other countries. Lensen said that by “all but ruling out AI regulation”, Collins was taking a different path to most of our trading partners. He wanted to see the Government at the very least map the lay of the land, surveying which industries and jobs would be affected by AI - and when and how.
“Air Canada had to pay out in court – so there’s a risk for businesses, too. What happens when a bank AI chatbot gives somebody the wrong advice on their mortgage? Will the bank put aside some of its profits to self-insurance against these mistakes?”
Giving the humans a power-boost
AI is already being used to augment helpdesk operations. One NZ’s Jason Paris recently noted that’s been the case for years, well before ChatGPT’s public release threw artificial intelligence into the mainstream. Paris has also been among those who have argued that many customers prefer a smooth, quick digital experience to talking to a human for the likes of simple queries and account changes.
CBA is ramping up its artificial intelligence efforts.
On Tuesday, as it revealed its chatbot trial, the bank also announced it would become the first Australasian organisation to power up a “state-of-the-art AI Factory” that will use cutting-edge capabilities from AWS (Amazon Web Services) including Amazon SageMaker, a machine-learning managed service, and Amazon EC2 P5 Instances for deep learning and high-performance computing applications. The whole setup runs on powerful new H100 Tensor Core GPUs from Nvidia.
And in CBA’s case it says a partnership with Amazon has already begun to change how the bank operates.
Previously, calls were recorded so staff could listen and offer training.
Now, AI monitors them. Chief data and analytics officer Andrew McMullan said the bank’s helpdesk got around 50,000 calls per day. A conversation could now be converted into a transcript in 1.2 seconds, with AI judging the customer’s sentiment and whether they had a good experience.
That means if you have cause to complain about a helpdesk operation that increasingly involves AI, it’ll be an AI that first vets your response.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
