Southeast Asia’s largest bank is rolling out an AI chatbot for its corporate clients, giving “round-the-block” access for customer care needs.
A pilot version of the generative AI-powered chatbot, named DBS Joy, was rolled out in February. It has since managed over 120,000 unique chats, DBS claimed in a statement. The virtual assistant also cut waiting times, and customer satisfaction scores rose by 23%. The bank’s virtual assistant was first rolled out in 2018, under the same name.
The new AI-enhanced chatbot provides instant answers to clients’ frequently asked questions, and connects them with a customer service specialist if they have more complex requests.
DBS executives said Joy’s upgrade was part of its commitment to empower small- and medium-sized enterprises, a majority of the 4,000 corporate clients using the program.
The bank added that its customer care workers are equipped with a digital co-pilot to help provide more tailored support to clients. The assistant “reduced employees’ effort and allows them to focus on work that involved human judgment to address client needs,” said Welson Jamin, group head of operations at DBS.
DBS embraces AI
The AI-powered DBS Joy is the latest move by the bank—No. 7 on Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 ranking—to incorporate artificial intelligence into its workflow.
Tan Su Shan, DBS’s CEO and No. 1 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Asia ranking, has long exhorted the adoption of AI.
In an October interview with Fortune, Tan called AI an “upgrade,” noting that “you don’t have to think about mundane questions. You can start thinking about constructive ideas for customers.”
DBS currently uses AI to handle tasks like fraud detection, algorithmic credit-scoring and employee training.
DBS is currently only making its Joy chatbot available in its home market of Singapore, yet the bank plans to progressively roll out the service to other core markets like Hong Kong and India.
Other Asian banks, such as OCBC, have integrated artificial intelligence in their operations. In 2023, OCBC launched an in-house Gen AI chatbot for its 30,000 global employees. And in May, it rolled out OCBC Markets Watch, a WhatsApp chatbot providing financial insights for business banking customers.