DBS leans on AI efficiency as interest rate pressures squeeze margins

“These models have fielded many outcomes. AI models can tell us about credit issues before they happen. They can mitigate loss or help with credit profiling. They can help you be more efficient, more productive,” she said.

“A lot of grunt work, like reading documents or legal jargon, (AI) can crunch through all that, assimilate (and) summarise. The models will understand customers’ propensity to spend, to invest, to save, etc.”

She credited the bank’s early investment in data management for giving it an edge. 

“You got to organise your data right,” she said. “We have a bit of a head start. We started many years ago to create our own data lake, set up processes and protocols, data security, and philosophy around how we deal with data.”

BALANCING AUTOMATION & EMPLOYMENT

While DBS has previously said that around 4,000 temporary and contract roles could be affected over three years due to AI adoption, Ms Tan emphasised that the artificial intelligence push is also creating new opportunities.

“In every revolution – the industrial revolution, the technological revolution, the internet revolution, now the AI revolution, old jobs may disappear, and new jobs will come,” she said. “It’s our job as responsible employers to make sure that we train our staff along the way.”

She noted that new roles are being added, particularly in areas that require human interaction. 

“We need more relationship managers, for example,” she said. “A lot of the mundane work can go to robots and AI, but humans still need human interaction. Clients still want to talk to a human.”