UOB is the first Singapore bank to trial Microsoft 365 Copilot, a Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI)-powered productivity tool.
As part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program (EAP), UOB will begin use of Microsoft 365 Copilot in October 2023. 300 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.
“Generative AI has been at the forefront of emerging technologies and we 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. 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,” said Mr. Lawrence Goh, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Group Infrastructure Platform Services, Group Technology and Operations, UOB.
“Microsoft is pleased to be collaborating with UOB to equip its workforce with Generative AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot, which we believe will yield an unparalleled agility needed to address changing customer expectations, competitive pressures, and regulatory shifts,” said Ms. Lee Hui Li, Singapore Managing Director, Microsoft.
Introduced by Microsoft in March 2023, 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 once the EAP begins, 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 employees can expect to benefit from Microsoft 365 Copilot in several ways:
- Raise productivity and effectiveness: With Microsoft 365 Copilot, employees can transform the way they work, be it effortlessly summarising lengthy documents and email threads on Outlook, transforming raw data into visualisations in Excel, or delivering concise meetings summaries on Teams. This game-changing automation frees up employees’ precious time, empowering them to unleash their creativity and focus on higher-impact tasks.
- Improve accessibility to pertinent information: With Microsoft 365 Copilot, employees will gain the capability to locate and reference information within the Bank in an effortless and convenient manner. It can intelligently identify and retrieve relevant data based on the context of the email or documents that employees are working on. This would foster seamless collaboration among employees across different functions, allowing them to build upon each other’s work more easily and meaningfully.
- Enhance content quality and deliver impactful messaging: By empowering employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot, they can transform existing documents into engaging presentations, make content more concise and suggest suitable tone of voice for messages. This will ensure the Bank maintains a consistent and compelling voice across marketing materials and responses to customers.
UOB understands the potential of integrating Generative AI in the Bank’s daily operations. 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 meaningful and sustainable business outcomes that can benefit employees and customers, and in keeping with the use of AI in a responsible manner.
