French bank Crédit Mutuel is doubling down on its use of IBM's Watson platform, committing to use the AI technology across all its business lines.
A year ago, Crédit Mutuel said that it would use Watson to help its 20,000 branch employees analyse customer emails and provide information on products and services.
Now, the bank will use Big Blue's cognitive computing platform across all of its business lines - consumer credit, personal protection, health, payment instruments, and risk and compliance.
In the IBM Cloud, Watson services will be secured in a fully encrypted, dedicated and isolated environment in France with back-up in Germany. And, in keeping with GDPR compliance, Crédit Mutuel customer data "is private and will never be for sale".
Additionally, Crédit Mutuel has chosen IBM QRadar Security Intelligence to collect all major cyber security information across the world, and make it available to its security analysts.
The two companies are also creating a 'Cognitive Factory', bringing together AI engineers and line of business experts to build a 100-strong team to develop and implement new AI projects. A joint university programme will be used to recruit interns.
Nicolas Théry, chairman, Crédit Mutuel CM11 Group, says: "Crédit Mutuel is deeply involved in a strategic partnership with IBM that will enable it to use technology and innovation to help people.
"Through this new joint-construction stage, Crédit Mutuel is enabled to transform its productivity gains and growth opportunities and pave the way for new services for millions of Crédit Mutuel customers and members.”