AmBank is among the first banks in Malaysia to use Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI-powered productivity tool that helps users at work

Tuesday, 24 October 2023 - AmBank has announced that it is among the first banks in the country to collaborate with Microsoft for a trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot. The trial, which started in September 2023, is part of Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Early Access Program, which aims to provide selected global customers with early access to the latest innovations in AI.

AmBank has been using Microsoft 365 Copilot since September 2023, with 300 employees from various functions, such as marketing, finance, customer service, and human resources, participating in the trial. The employees have been finding ways to boost their productivity and creativity, while assisting them with tasks that entail understanding and synthesizing information, such as:

• Generating reports and summaries from large datasets and documents
• Creating personalized and engaging content for customers and stakeholders
• Answering queries and providing recommendations based on user preferences and context

According to AmBank, the trial has resulted in improvements in efficiency and new insights.

Datuk Iswaraan, Group Chief Operating Officer, AmBank said, "We believe AI is one of the most profound technologies that will transform financial services. AI will be a quantum change to customer and employee experience. We are excited to explore how Microsoft has made its AI-powered tools more secure and enterprise ready by having 300 of our most promising staff unleash ways to reduce the time and effort that it takes to generate content without sacrificing quality."

K. Raman, Managing Director, Microsoft Malaysia said "Microsoft is thrilled to work together with AmBank to bring the power of AI to their employees. With Microsoft 365 Copilot, we are equipping AmBank's workforce with the tools they need to be productive, efficient, and creative, while also preparing them for the evolving way of work in the generative AI era.”

Over the years, AmBank has explored how it can create a lean workforce by eliminating low-value-added activity. AmBank is now on the next wave of looking at how value-added activity can be done faster and better. Minuting meetings to capture the essence of discussions and follow up actions in forums that address risk, new product capability, strategy, planning and performance reviews is essential to operational excellence in a bank. Minute taking is one area where AmBank has deployed Copilot to impressive outcome. The person responsible for minuting a meeting can focus on the deliberation. Copilot listens in, captures, and summarises meeting discussions and actions succinctly. The human in the loop element is necessary to review, but high-quality minutes can be ready within an hour of the meeting concluding now.

AmBank is also seeing good results in a pilot within its Digital Design team to have Copilot participate in Design-Thinking workshops and help product owners generate user stories. From a process integrative approach,

AmBank is looking into how Copilot can be used to deflect technical support center tickets from human agents to bots. 30% of technical troubleshooting queries are cases that can be handled through a standard knowledge base. An AI-bot can help employees resolve these instantly and without the friction of waiting. These are just some of the ways AmBank is unleashing the power of generative AI with Copilot.