CIMB’s Singapore business had a standout year in 2024 in terms of making its strategic investments in technology and digital transformation pay off – through deeper customer engagement, enhanced operational efficiency and delivery of solutions to align with customers’ evolving needs.
While the bank envisions shaping the future of banking by strengthening connections and uplifting efficiencies with smarter, human-centric innovation, CIMB in Singapore operates on a single branch model only. As a result, CIMB’s conversational-style, real-time chatbot, EVA Chatbot, has become one of the key alternative touchpoints for customers to reach out to the bank, along with its Clicks mobile app and internet banking channel.
In particular last year, CIMB took a big step forward in enhancing its overall digital capabilities through greater automation.
For example, it pivoted EVA Chatbot’s capabilities to also support the bank’s back-end operations. As a result, the team leverages Generative AI (GenAI) capabilities to develop an automated email-generation feature that speeds up responses to customers’ emails, plus has the flexibility to adapt the emails accordingly.
Through a strong knowledge repository, the bank’s bot can perform more ‘human’ tasks. T hese include promptly retrieving answers to queries of simple to medium complexities. At the same time, CIMB has put guardrails in place to ensure information will not be tampered with.
This move beyond back-office efficiency to directly improve customer interactions is a game-changer that judges recognised and acknowledged as part of this award.
Some of the specific benefits of integrating GenAI to transform processes into a seamless, intelligent and human-centred experience have included higher quality interactions. For instance, beyond merely operational efficiency, the bot analyses the sentiment and context of customer inquiries, ensuring replies are not just fast, but also empathetic, personalised and aligned with the customer’s needs and emotional state.
In particular, by leveraging AI as a co-pilot, CIMB ensures its service remains genuine, thoughtful and responsive.
In turn, the bank has seen notable improvement in engagement. It has consistently achieved a minimum 94% accuracy rate, ensuring reliable and high-quality email responses. CIMB has also streamlined operations, with fewer agents customising email bot responses for retail customers, significantly reducing manual workload. As a result, its staff can focus on higher value-adding work.
Overall, there has been a significant uplift in productivity due to the reduction in response time while service quality and consistency have improved. At the same time, through emails being crafted with AI-powered empathy, the bank has seen higher satisfaction and improved sentiment scores.
Ultimately, the GenAI-driven approach has built a foundation for broader AI adoption in customer interactions across other digital channels. And by pushing the boundaries of GenAI in banking, CIMB is redefining how banks communicate, connect and care for their customers in the digital era.
“Our EVA chatbot has grown from a pandemic solution into a trusted companion for over 190,000 users, delivering millions of meaningful conversations. By being ‘simpler, better, and faster’, we will continue to deliver tailored financial solutions that evolve with our customers’ needs.”
Merlyn Tsai, Head of Consumer Banking and Digital, CIMB Singapore
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