Colonial First State expands AI tools to boost service & advice
Colonial First State is implementing generative artificial intelligence initiatives across its operations to enhance customer service, advisor support, and organisational efficiency in partnership with Avanade and Microsoft.
AI deployment
The wealth management group has moved from AI experimentation to launching several practical pilots, including a GPT-4-powered chatbot for customer queries and a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) assistant to support advisors. The technology deployment aims to simplify the complexities of wealth management and make financial advice easier to access for its more than three million customers.
CFS has introduced three pilot projects: Agent Assist, designed to help frontline staff provide faster responses to customer queries and reduce call escalations by up to 40%; FirstTech, a RAG assistant that aids financial advisors in navigating complex legislation; and a Feedback Analysis tool that uses Azure OpenAI and machine learning to analyse customer feedback for service improvements.
Daniel Arico, Generative AI Product Owner at CFS, outlined the advantages realised during adoption.
"Agent Assist was a test of how quickly we could implement this type of tool into our business. It allowed us to leverage our learnings from FirstTech and apply them at speed, demonstrating our ability to adapt and innovate."
Learning and strategy
CFS's engagement with generative AI has focused on balancing enthusiasm with careful implementation. Reflecting on this approach, Arico said, "Our exploration of generative AI was really driven by an unprecedented surge of enthusiasm from our employees. We've witnessed several technological revolutions before, like the advent of the cloud and blockchain, but none have matched the electrifying energy surrounding the release of ChatGPT and similar Large Language Models (LLMs)."
"Employees across all departments of our business were enthusiastic about the transformative potential of this technology, emphasising its impact on both personal and professional lives."
CFS leadership saw the excitement among staff as indicative of wider potential. "Our primary goal was to learn, learn, learn," explained Arico. The company partnered with Avanade and Microsoft to gain a better understanding of the evolving opportunities and limitations of generative AI.
Jeroen Buwalda, Group Executive Technology, Transformation and Operations at Colonial First State, commented on the collaboration.
"Avanade brought in a global team of experts who helped us understand both the potential and the limitations of gen AI, guided us through safe and structured experimentation, and provided a clear roadmap for realising tangible value."
Pilots in detail
The Agent Assist proof-of-concept leverages Azure OpenAI and GPT-4O technology to help customer guidance teams quickly access information from an internal knowledge base during calls. By surfacing relevant answers more rapidly, the tool is expected to improve productivity, reduce average call handling times, and lower the number of escalated calls to technical support by as much as 40% when fully deployed.
The FirstTech assistant supports the technical services team, which helps advisors interpret superannuation and investment legislation. FirstTech uses GPT-4 with vision capability and RAG to enable quick searches through technical guides, summarising information and reducing the time taken to address advisor queries.
Arico commented, "FirstTech was the most complex model we could envision, with the potential to make a substantial impact on our industry. It represented a significant challenge, but also a chance to drive meaningful change."
Additionally, the Feedback Analysis project uses Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Power BI to enable the complaints and resolution team to quickly identify trends and categorise issues arising from customer feedback, informing product improvement decisions throughout the organisation.
Adoption and future direction
CFS reports that all employees now have access to generative AI tools in some form, and that 75% of permanent staff are using Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 to assist them in everyday tasks. The wealth manager states that its AI pilots have already resulted in more efficient ways of working for staff and improved customer outcomes.
Looking ahead, CFS has announced plans to expand its AI Centre of Excellence to bring more complex generative AI use cases into regular operations, focusing on the continued improvement of both customer and employee experiences.
