Intelligent Banking with AI: AI-driven solutions to enhance banking operations

Financial institutions are at a crossroads where embracing AI can lead to significant improvements in customer engagement and operational efficiency. Gökhan Çakıroğlu highlights the key AI innovations that banks can implement to enhance their services, from personalized digital assistants to advanced analytics, helping them to better serve their customers.

Q: Can you explain VeriPark's overall product strategy and especially the lineup for this year?

To answer this question, we need to recall the biggest disruption in 2023. As Bill Gates said, "The age of AI has begun." AI is transforming how people work, learn, travel, get healthcare, and communicate. Businesses are distinguishing themselves by how well they use AI, and ChatGPT quickly became a phenomenon. Microsoft made a significant commitment to adopt ChatGPT, OpenAI, and generative AI into its products, leading to the creation of digital assistants and Copilots.

We at VeriPark set three important targets: building new Copilots for the banking industry, extending existing Copilots with banking skills, and infusing OpenAI generative capabilities into our solutions. Our goal is to create Copilot assistants that not only answer questions but engage in meaningful conversations and participate in banking services. For example, a retail relationship management Copilot could help negotiate fixed deposit terms, while a mortgage advisor Copilot could assist with compliance reviews.

We are also focusing on multi-tenancy, software as a service, no-code/low-code extensible solutions, and configuration-first approaches to streamline project implementations. You'll see more about these changes, including different packaging layers in our products and delivering our solutions as packaged binaries.

Additionally, we are investing in the Dynamics Contact Center platform to build the next generation of banking contact centers, which could disrupt the financial services contact center space.

Our product teams are also planning to build solutions and upgrade Copilots to help operate existing VeriChannel solutions to the newest codebase, utilizing AI in upgrade projects.

Q: When do you think these products will start to be used in the market? 

Most of them will be available this year. We are already demonstrating our Copilots and engaging with Microsoft teams to expand their capabilities. The rollout has already started.

Q: AI is disrupting all industries, especially financial industries and banks. How do you think these industries will look in a couple of years?

AI, particularly generative AI, is transforming the financial services industry. According to McKinsey, satisfied customers are six times more likely to stay with their bank. Today, banking employees are bombarded with data, applications, and communication channels, leading to what Microsoft calls "digital debt." AI aims to improve employee experience by automating mundane tasks, summarizing data, recommending actions, and providing real-time insights. This empowers employees to be more productive and creative, ultimately improving customer satisfaction.

AI tools will also enable banks to build new customer journeys, enhance digital onboarding, and design seamless processes. Banks that offer smooth, easy journeys will win new customers and increase market share. AI is also becoming indispensable in back-office processes, adopting robotic process automation to reduce operational costs and improve efficiencies.

Q: How will VeriPark position itself in areas like hyper-personalization?

At VeriPark, we are already using AI in our product development and projects. We aim to bring AI capabilities to improve customer and banker experiences. Our customer-first culture sets us apart. We believe our success depends on understanding customer needs, solving their challenges, and exceeding their expectations. Our team has a proven track record in technology and domain knowledge, focusing on financial services. We leverage this expertise to create innovative solutions.

Our products are end-to-end connected, not just standalone solutions, which makes us different. We embrace change and technological advancements to better serve our customers. Being a Microsoft Global Solutions Partner recognized for financial services also gives us a significant advantage, benefiting from Microsoft's resources, solutions, and industry-specific knowledge.

Q: Let's talk about technology trends. What other technologies or trends will be crucial from a technology perspective?

Everything will revolve around AI. For example, if Google Glass was developed today, it would be integrated with ChatGPT. AI will be in every hardware, from mobile devices to desktops and glasses. Microsoft is also pushing for AI-first development, which means AI will be embedded in every part of our lives. We will see more agent-like cooperative frameworks where groups of AI agents work together to assist us.