ONE ZERO Bank has initiated a pilot programme involving 450 customers, with plans to roll out the service to the general public in Q4 2023.

One of the first genAI chat platforms for private banking, it will also give money management advice, says Gal Bar Dea, CEO of One Zero Bank.

”Generative AI technology, replaces the traditional 'bot' creating an exceptional customer experience that closely resembles one-on-one human interaction, with zero wait time," he says. "The integration of this technology into banking is set to redefine service standards. Paired with the bank's proprietary AI technology, which offers valuable money management insights, it advances our mission to provide inclusive private banking services to all."

The new virtual assistant utilises the LLM technology of AI21 Labs, co-founded by Prof. Amnon Shashua, Prof. Yoav Shoham, and Uri Goshen. Unlike conventional chatbots that can only answer specific questions, the generative AI chat machine can analyse customer requests (using free language), comprehend their intentions, and provide responses to both general and specific inquiries regarding their accounts.

The new chat system will replace the current conversation menus, which rely on decision trees and predefined answers. Instead, the AI-based assistant will provide responses encompassing a wide range of inquiries including simple questions such as available account balance, accrued deposit interest, upcoming credit card payment, as well as more complex queries like comparing expenses between specific months of different years. Additionally, the system will utilise predictive capabilities, leveraging AI technology developed by the bank, to address predictive questions.

During the pilot phase, the bank will focus on training the model specifically to address banking-related questions while programming the machine to avoid providing responses that may have legal or ethical implications.

Amichai Levy, CTO, One Zero Bank, says: "The generative intelligence system developed by the bank’s tech team during the last months includes unique advancements that are anticipated to be registered for patents and is aimed to create a designated solution for the bank to smartly interact with its customers based on their personal data and needs.

"The prevailing trend in the world involves the consumption of language models primarily through public cloud services. The collaboration with AI21 Labs offers a distinctive advantage by enabling the secure deployment of language models specifically tailored to organisations handling sensitive information."