Nationwide consolidates data estate to pave the way for GenAI

Editorial

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The UK building society has deployed GPT-4 within Azure OpenAI to help generate letters, freeing up staff for more productive work. It says the back office task has dropped average response times from 45 to 10-15 minutes – an efficiency improvement of around 66%.

“Generative AI offers incredible potential to improve how organisations serve customers while improving the employee experience, too,” says Srinath Kanisapakkam, Nationwide’s chief data & analytics officer. “I’m delighted by the impact of our first generative AI solution with Microsoft, not to mention the speed with which we’ve been able to implement it.”

Key to the expansion plans is a new data framework, which has involved the building society using Microsoft Azure to consolidate and centralise its large data estate. It then applied Azure Databricks, a unified, open data analytics platform, and Teradata’s VantageCloud, to analyse and maintain all this centralised data.

Governance is also critical. The building society has established an AI Centre of Expertise, with the support of IBM Consulting, to oversee and deliver all of its AI development work, and an AI Council to ensure that all AI applications conform to responsible AI principles.

Paul Ballard, Nationwide’s technology strategy & enterprise architecture director, stresses that Nationwide’s interest in AI is not as a way to reduce headcount, but to help employees “maximise their impact”. All GenAI output is reviewed first, he says – a human must always be in the loop.

“Our mantra is ‘Copilot, not autopilot’,” he states.

Ballard says the successful integration of the company’s data to support customer relationship management will also pave the way for more Azure OpenAI applications in future.

He cites contact centre, credit risk assessment, economic crime monitoring, virtual assistant ‘Arti’, and CO2 emissions reporting, as some examples.

“Generative AI will enable us to offer more tailored digital propositions, improve service, and optimise decision making, risk management and operational efficiency,” he says. “Whether it’s in customer service or elsewhere, AI gives us an opportunity to evolve not only what we do, but also how we do it. That, in turn, can help us create more connected and engaging experiences for Nationwide members and colleagues.”