DBS, the top bank in Singapore, has announced a three-year plan to reduce temporary and contract staff by around 10 percent to make way for generative artificial intelligence.
DBS has been working on the implementation of AI for over a decade. By the end of 2024, DBS had found satisfactory results with the implementation of 800 AI models.
AI largely supports DBS in assisting enterprises with the management of their credit risk with the use of AI algorithmic models’ data analyses. Today, DBS has found the most success in what they call “nudges.” Nudges are personalized communications that guide customers towards properly managing their investments. They can also direct customers to useful and relevant products.
These nudges resulted in increased client engagement of 16%. DBS has reported that customers who engaged with these nudges “saved 83 percent more, were investing four times more, and were two times more insured than non-users.”
In the realm of customer service, DBS deploys AI CSO Assistants to supplement the work of human customer service workers. They assist with “call transcription, summarisation, service request generation, and product and service recommendations.” 90% of the customer service workers approve of the AI assistants, as their transcription and solution accuracy is nearly perfect. They have also successfully reduced the amount of time required in customer service phone calls.
However, DBS does not plan to stop after they perfect their use of AI in customer support and data collection. Their three-year plan includes the implementation of fraud detection and risk management, specifically in their nudges. For example, a nudge may inform a customer of an unusual transaction, or of alerts involving changes in stock market investments.
DBS anticipates that the further development of AI in banking will lead to an even larger increase in profitability and customer satisfaction.
International AI Competition
There is no questioning the subject of the 21st century’s spin on the space race. Nations all around the world are fiercely contending to take the lead in technological advances—AI in particular.
Most will suppose that the two nations most at odds are the United States and China. Of course, this is true: the two are neck and neck in this international competition.
However, East Asian nations have enjoyed the fastest and most recent growth in successful investments in the AI industry. The governments of South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have all exhibited strong support and given ample funding towards the research and realization of AI. The latter two, along with Singapore, have ranked at the top of global competition in terms of successful haste.
DBS’s innovations in AI are largely due to MAS, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. MAS is Singapore’s central bank and the nation’s financial regulatory authority.
In June 2023, MAS initiated Project MindForge to analyze and develop generative AI for financial services. It enlisted Singapore’s top banks to assist in analyzing the risk and potential of AI, and to form a framework for its responsible use. By November 2024, MAS announced the happy conclusion of “Phase 1” of Project MindForge. MAS’s future phases will expand into the realms of insurance and asset management. Singaporean banks, such as DBS, will reflect these goals.
Which Jobs Are Next?
With the international race over AI and the many successes AI has already claimed, one simply must ask, whose jobs will be overtaken next? Customer service is a given–and AI powered drive-thrus are only becoming more common. Automated transportation has the capability of replacing bus drivers and airplane pilots. Jobs involving translation services, inventory management, data entry and analysis, and accounting all have the potential to be replaced.
What is most concerning is that the jobs projected to be most at risk are often entry-level or available to those who lack formal education. Coupled with rising global unemployment, AI seems more risk than potential to the everyman.
Why wouldn’t an employer choose a worker who never complains, never varies in their work, and never requires a bathroom break, a lunch break, a sick day, a vacation, or even sleep?
While most tend to believe AI art is simply a collage of imitations as opposed to true art, what about jobs that do imitate? For example, what happens to law, which relies on legal precedent to determine rulings? Wouldn’t it be much faster and more thorough for an AI bot to analyze all past rulings when determining the results of a case, therefore completing the majority of the work we owe to judges, lawyers, and paralegals?
How do People Feel About AI?
AI puts the environment at risk as well. The development and use of AI rely on large-scale electronic waste, heavy overconsumption of water, unsustainable mining practices, and enormous amounts of energy. But when it comes to banking, AI may actually produce more benefit than harm to the environment. One blog claims that the use of AI in finance “can optimise data centre operations to prevent energy waste in ways that manual or traditional methods cannot.” They can follow demand fluctuations more closely than a human can, and immediately reduce energy usage by adjusting the distribution of resources that a bank uses, such as cooling systems.
The undetermined risk factor of environmental damage has deterred many. However, most people tend to be hopeful about the development of AI. Young people are especially optimistic according to survey results.
Survey Results
In 2020, the Pew Research Center found that 72% of Singaporean young adults believe that the development of AI is a good thing for their society. It is likely that, as Singapore climbs to the top of the AI competition, support for AI development continues to rise.
Another study compiled by the Jamestown Foundation surveyed students from the top two universities in China. 80% believed AI has more potential for benefit than it does for harm. The same survey also found that participants ranked AI to be the least threatening technological advancement.
Contrastingly, young American participants in a Pew Research Study were not as hopeful. In 2021, 18% of participants felt more excited, 45% felt neutral, and 37% felt more concerned. By 2023, only 10% felt excited, 36% felt neutral, and 52% felt concerned. 66% of American teenagers surveyed by Junior Achievement USA felt concerned that AI would decrease job opportunities.
Regardless of how people feel about AI, technological advancements are inevitable. In the early 1960’s, American factory workers threw fits over “Unimate,” the first robot assembly line worker. Educators in the 1700s worried about students depending on paper too much! So, perhaps we should at least try to be hopeful about what seems to be unavoidable.
