Kathy Gibson is at SingularityU Exponential Finance Summit in Cape Town – Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving workforce transformation – we are already seeing instances where people and technology are working together, and this is going to gather steam in the future.
The new move to workforce augmentation is helping companies to save money, providing career paths for workers, and ensuring a better customer experience, says Kirsty Roth, global head of operations and a group GM at global banking group HSBC.
HSBC has 39-million customers and processes 1,7-trillion transactions per year.
“We work in a very heavily regulated industry,” Roth adds, “so fighting cybercrime is essential.” This requires that the bank screen of millions of names and transactions to identify and prevent fraudulent activity.
The traditional way of working saw employees performing a lot of manual processes, which they don’t particularly enjoy. The manual processes also limit the speed at which customers can be serviced.
Getting rid of much of the paper involved in processes was a good first step, but HSBC wanted to go further. It developed a vision that aimed for a paper-free organisation offering a seamless customer experience.
This “Think 2030, Deliver 2020” vision enshrines HSBC’s aim to use technology to offer an experience that was just not possible a few years ago.
“We know all our services need to be personalised, easy and interconnected – or someone else will provide them,” Roth says.
The strategy sets out investments in technology, innovation and people; with 10 strategic actions prioritised:
* Improve the customer journey;
* Digitalise operations;
* Develop people;
* Invest in technology;
* Simplify the organisation;
* Create centres of expertise;
* Modernise data;
* Drive operational efficiencies;
* Offer utility services; and
* Embrace innovation.
The journey has been game-changing for HSBC, Roth says, and the organisation has learnt a lot of valuable lessons.
The first lesson was the realisation that the company had to play to the strengths of both humans and machines.
“AI doesn’t get bored or tired, and it can work 24/7 in all jurisdictions,” she explains. “But it cannot apply judgement in nuanced situations.”
AI is thus able to process many more transactions than people are, leaving people to analyse just those that are flagged. AI can also do much of the research and analysis needed to allow people to make the required decisions.
HSBC also realised that collaborating with fintechs and other organisations in the industry was key, putting aside competitive differences when it makes sense for all players.
An example is a solution the bank developed in the Know your Customer (KYC) space that let it perform its KYC requirements 70% quicker. This has now been productised and licensed to competitors.
The third imperative was creating better experiences for customers and colleagues.
Some of the solutions in this space include the use of robotics to simplify processes for account opening, shortening the process from three weeks to 24 hours.
Other robotic devices and chatbots have been deployed worldwide to help customers navigate processes.
Bringing the staff along on the journey was crucial. “At the beginning, people were pretty sceptical about what it might mean for them,” Roth explains.
The bank spent some time debunking myths about AI and also helped staff to imagine how they could reskill to stay relevant into 2030. It also crowdsourced ideas from the staff – and many of these have been taken on board and implemented.
Workers were encouraged to think about elements that include strategy, innovation, change, technology, data and delivery, people, relationship management, commercial management, regulatory environment, and risk.
Career counselling was made available to help people think about their own journey; and human resources was brought on board to make sure they were counselling and hiring for the future.
At HSBC, new jobs are already common and people are embracing new careers.
Roth points out that, so far, all the people whose jobs have been impacted by technology have been integrated into other areas of the business.
The result so far is positive, Roth says. Cognitive automation is already making banking easier and more secure for customers.
Roles in operations continue to evolve, playing to the strengths of humans and machines, with humans grasping the opportunity to move up the value chain.