As technologies are now taking over many industries across the globe, the UnionBank of the Philippines is now transforming its data science and artificial intelligence (DSAI) into a wide range of personalized banking services and solutions to enable scalable customer-centric finance.

“AI is the engine of the digital renaissance. It is a vehicle to achieve an aspiration. It is important to anchor AI on what truly matters — people, whether customers or employees. AI is truly about being human-centric first,” said Dr. David Hardoon, UnionBank’s Senior Advisor for Data and Artificial Intelligence.

“DSAI is a key element within UnionBank’s digitize or perish journey. It is the differentiator between just ‘digitize to survive’ and ‘digitize to flourish,’” he added.

Artificial intelligence is a “must-have” innovation in digital banking

Hardoon emphasized that AI is a “must-have” in the digital banking system to make finance relevant, specific, and contextual to each consumer.

“The bank has been introducing and enhancing countless digital touchpoints for customer ease and fluidity of engagement. These touchpoints mean exactly that customers engage with the bank on a more regular basis,” he said.

“Imagine the ability to provide bridging or intra-day loans without a customer’s need to submit hefty financial historical statements,” he added.

UnionBank’s use of AI

UnionBank uses AI to upgrade its existing strategy and accelerate further innovation in its banking services and solutions. This serves as an additional layer of defense against financial crimes.

It said that AI enables them to detect more instances while making sure that the existing defense and process will not be disrupted to ensure operational efficiency.

“AI is also being leveraged by the bank to predict future volume of inbound calls that can reduce some of the volatility in call management. Through AI, the cash management solutions team is provided with data-driven relevant recommendations and proposals for customers,” it said.

DSAI is used by digital banks to support its capabilities in understanding customers’ needs through their various engagements with the bank and providers and the ability to templatize the approach to determine relevance, suitability, and affordability.