Westpac has already rolled out the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) platform. Under the new arrangement, if a customer calls the bank, the AI component of CCaaS will support the customer service representative by automatically providing the customer’s relevant banking profile and information about any products they might ask about in real time.

The announcement comes as new research from Westpac NZ showed general support for AI when it comes to using the technology to improve banking services.

“In a nationally-representative survey of 529 people, conducted by research platform Ideally, 65% of respondents said they were comfortable or neutral about the idea of their bank using AI to help contact centre employees provide quicker responses to their questions (45% comfortable; 20% neutral), while 70% were comfortable or neutral about AI being used to help detect fraud and scams (49% comfortable; 21% neutral),” the company said.

Russell Jones, Westpac NZ Chief Information Officer, hailed the introduction of the new technology as a significant step.

He commented, “We’re really excited to be the first bank in New Zealand, as well as one of the first in the world, to introduce CCaaS. We’re also really pleased to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Microsoft developers from across the world on the implementation of CCaaS in our business, meaning it’s been configured specifically for Westpac’s needs.”

“We expect to deploy the product to all our contact centres by August, meaning configuration, delivery, testing and full deployment will have been completed within the space of one year. The Westpac research showed 66% of respondents were themselves already using AI programmes – 53% in their personal lives and 30% at work,” Russell Jones noted.

Stating that AI will help Westpac’s employees deliver faster on consumer queries, the senior official said, “Our people are our greatest competitive advantage – we want to use AI to support them to be their best. Previously, they might have needed to run numerous searches in our system to access details of the various products a customer might be interested in, then overlay that with different views of a customer’s profile.”

“A customer who’s banked with us for a long time could have a whole range of products, all with different terms and conditions. Using CCaaS means an employee can now access accurate, relevant information almost instantaneously, with the platform delivering additional product information as those topics arise in the conversation. Security and privacy are obviously critical in everything we do, and as with any information a customer shares with us, CCaaS data is secure and confidential,” he observed.

Duncan Taylor, General Manager, Financial Services Industry for Microsoft Australia New Zealand, said, “Overseas, CCaaS is being successfully used by big businesses with huge customer bases, such as EasyJet and Microsoft itself. We’re seeing this result in significantly lower case resolution time and even reduced turnover of customer service reps, thanks to giving them better experiences. Banking is obviously a very complex industry, so there’s considerable scope for CCaaS to add value to Westpac’s employees and customers.”

“Over the past few years, our teams have completely transformed our tech infrastructure. As well as designing future-proof architecture, we’ve completely overhauled our network and computer platforms, refreshed our mainframe and established new data centres. Introducing CCaaS is the latest milestone in the work we’re doing to modernise banking and deliver for our customers,” Russell Jones concluded.

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