UOB is the first Singapore bank to trial Microsoft 365 Copilot, a generative artificial intelligence-powered productivity tool, through the software giant’s Early Access Program (EAP)
Beginning this month, 300 UOB employees across multiple frontline and back-end business functions in the bank will progressively gain access to the new AI innovation from Microsoft.
Staff in functions such as branches, customer service and technology and operations will be able to use Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve productivity, accessibility, and collaboration in a secured manner.
Lawrence Goh, CIO of UOB, said that generative AI has been at the forefront of emerging technologies and they see tremendous potential in integrating it into UOB’s daily operations.
“With that, we are proud to be among the first banks in ASEAN to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot to our employees,” said Goh.
“In addition to productivity improvements, we hope that this tool can spark creativity and inspire innovation among employees, ultimately further enhancing our customers’ banking experiences,” he added.
Lee Hui Li, Singapore Microsoft’s managing director in Singapore, said the software giant believes that Copilot will yield an “unparalleled agility” needed to address changing customer expectations, competitive pressures, and regulatory shifts.
Introduced by Microsoft last March, Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of large language models with business data from users’ calendars, emails, chats documents, meetings and more, and Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Teams to turn words into a Generative-AI powered productivity tool.
Participating UOB employees can access Microsoft 365 Copilot for one year from the start of EAP, during which they will receive support from a global Center of Excellence and Microsoft Customer Success team.
Workshops are also available to them to ensure a smooth and seamless adoption and onboarding process.
UOB said its employees can expect to benefit from Microsoft 365 Copilot in raise productivity and effectiveness; improving accessibility to pertinent information; and enhancing content quality and deliver impactful messaging.
According to UOB, the Microsoft 365 Copilot EAP will enable the bank to explore and guide employees through a new way of working with AI, as they create active employee feedback loops that contribute to a broader GenAI strategy for the whole bank.
This is part of UOB’s longer-term plans to explore and adopt GenAI technology for business outcomes that can benefit employees and customers, and in keeping with the use of AI in a responsible manner.
