Tapping into AI-powered nudges
Intelligent Banking combines predictive analytics, AI/ML and customer-centric design to convert data into hyper-personalised, intuitive yet unintrusive, insights that guide customers in performing banking and investment transactions.
The hyper-personalised communications (aka “nudges”) that we send ensure customers can manage their money better and enjoy effortless banking.
With Intelligent Banking, the bank:
Governs the best use of data across the Group;
Gives customers control over their data and notification preferences and;
Makes sure our nudges reach the right people and are useful by showing them insights and relevant products.
This is part of our efforts to accelerate the transformation of DBS to an AI-fuelled bank, and industrialise the use of data, AI and ML to power differentiated experiences for our clients and customers. These capabilities also play a key role in enabling us to better safeguard our customers, such as by alerting them to unusual bill payments, and screening tens of millions of transactions automatically to identify suspicious entities or transactions. DBS has also developed algorithmic models, powered by AI and data analytics, to help SMEs, especially micro and small enterprises, manage their credit risk.
Intelligent Banking harnesses the power of AI/ML to transform how banking services are manufactured, delivered and managed. Marrying behavioural science with big data and machine learning to generate Intelligent Banking nudges will help customers in a multitude of ways. If done well, hyper-personalised communications can influence customers, one nudge at a time, to make small decisions that add up to better financial wellness.
By analysing past spending and transaction patterns, we can predict upcoming payments and alert customers so they can avoid being charged fees for any shortfall in their accounts.
For first-time investors, we help determine their risk appetite and curate a list of relevant investment products on their behalf. Once they graduate to searching for individual equities in our app, we might suggest stocks that are similar in terms of company profile and profitability. investment with us, we trigger automated updates about their portfolio or other market opportunities based on the latest real-time prices.
Customers who receive our nudges are likely to invest more and be better covered by insurance than those who don’t. We’ve also launched a platform that nudges relationship managers to chat with their clients based on our recommended topics, which has resulted in a 16% growth in client engagement. AI-powered algorithmic models also alert the bank to potential signs of trouble faced by SMEs.
What have we done so far?
We’ve created more than 100 artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that analyse an internal data mart with 15,000 customer data points, to generate seven types of nudges that, for instance, offer personalised product recommendations and celebrate our customers’ milestones.
Today, more than 3.5 million retail and wealth customers are engaging with 30 million hyper-personalised insights/nudges every month in Singapore alone.
We also supplement our information with data sources such as SGFinDex, developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the banks in Singapore, to allow customers to safely sync their financial data and get a full overview of all their accounts through a single platform.
For our wealth clients who are keen to invest in our proprietary and award-winning research / investment ideas, we are converting these into actionable actions that can be directly transacted via the digibank wealth app, thereby connecting ideas and actions. We also introduced remittance FX alerts which notify customers that a foreign currency they have remitted in the past is now at a favourable rate to remit again.
What’s next
We are strengthening our predictive AI capabilities to further personalise our nudges – going beyond studying transactional data to include key behavioural and location data. This will enable us to better serve specific customer segments such as national servicemen, parents, pet owners, avid shoppers and send customers location-based offers and insights.
We’re also innovating first-in-market use cases such as location data to safeguard our customers. For instance, we are developing nudges to alert customers when we detect an odd card transaction made at a POS terminal, even though the customer isn’t near the location of the POS terminal.
We are launching Equity Price Movements alerts and other new nudges to Hong Kong this year. We are also planning to launch FX real-time alerts for customers in Taiwan.
