Finance / Banking
Bankwest: Automating basic digital chat inquiries, handing off to colleagues and assisting response drafting
- Company
- Bankwest
- Country
- Australia
- Adoption stage
- In operation
- Source published
- Date basis
- The date the source was published. It can differ from the date adoption started.
- How the source was checked
- Read the full source text
The work problem
As Bankwest became a digital bank, it needed both fast online responses and human explanations for complex financial questions. Asynchronous customers may return later, so colleagues must retain context across long conversations. They also need to explain financial terminology, including mortgage concepts, in language customers understand.
Technology and data
Bankwest uses Bee, powered by Microsoft technology, to answer basic questions such as password resets and locking stolen cards in natural language. When it cannot resolve an issue or a human is needed, Dynamics 365 Contact Centre passes conversation context and a summary to a colleague. The system summarizes long threads, and Copilot drafts plain-language responses that colleagues personalize. They adjust their tone using a live sentiment indicator, while bank teams review prior interactions to improve Bee's prompts and replies.
Results
Bankwest colleagues featured by Microsoft say contextual summaries and draft responses support faster, more consistent explanations. A home lending specialist says simplifying financial terminology has improved conversation quality. The article says digital chat represents a majority of the bank's customer interactions and describes positive customer and colleague feedback. These observations are not quantified effects attributable solely to AI.
Limits and open questions
No before-and-after measures of average handling time, automated resolution rate or sentiment accuracy are disclosed. The digital chat share cannot be treated as an outcome of Bee alone.
Sources
- How innovation is helping a digital bank maintain human connection in chat conversationsMicrosoft Source Asia, Accessed
Compiled from public sources. These are not results from ATF Works customers.