With the rapid development of the digital economy, the digital employee trend driven by artificial intelligence and robotic process automation is sweeping the world, and the banking industry, as the main force of digital transformation, is stepping up the construction of digital employees based on AI technology, realizing human-machine collaboration with natural persons, and playing a key role in smart customer service, intelligent outbound call, smart operation, intelligent marketing, intelligent risk control and counter terminals. Agricultural Bank of China actively responds to the call of the state, adheres to the scientific and technological innovation idea of "consolidation, expansion, and in-depth application", takes the construction of digital China as an opportunity, actively explores and innovates the application of digital employees, accelerates the establishment of institutional rules, strengthens digital capacity building, and empowers the "digital intelligence" transformation of Agricultural Bank of China with digital employees.
Peng Junhong, Deputy General Manager of R&D Center and General Manager of Wuhan R&D Department of Agricultural Bank of China
Trends in the adoption of digital employees in banking
With the large-scale application of a new generation of information technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and cloud computing, digital employees have emerged as an anthropomorphic new type of staff, compared with natural persons, digital employees have many advantages such as efficiency, cost reduction, accuracy, and security, and can play the role of reducing staff and increasing efficiency, and produce digital productivity. In the coming decades, China's working-age population will shrink significantly, and the emergence of digital employees can greatly alleviate the labor gap. Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China", which pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen and optimize the digital economy, build a self-reliant and self-reliant digital technology innovation system, strengthen the main position of enterprise scientific and technological innovation, give play to the leading and supporting role of science and technology backbone enterprises, and provide a good environment for the in-depth development of digital employees.
At present, the digital employee construction of domestic commercial banks is still in the initial stage of application development, and they are actively introducing AI, machine learning and other technologies to comprehensively promote digital transformation as an opportunity to actively promote the digital transformation of traditional business processes and business models, and realize business processing automation and intelligence. At present, many commercial banks have applied digital employees in their business, and put forward the concept of digital employee factory, taking digital labor as "quantifiable and measurable" human resources, clarifying their job classification, organizational management, risk management, etc., and existing natural person employees together constitute modern enterprise human resources, playing an important role in counter terminals, customer marketing, intelligent customer service, intelligent decision-making and other fields, achieving good results and comprehensively improving the level of banking services.
Agricultural Bank of China digital employee construction ideas
In the process of comprehensively and deeply promoting the major project of digital transformation, ABC actively explores the direction of digital employee construction, innovates the landing of digital employee application scenarios, and plans and builds a digital employee system through the four-step strategy of "environmental construction, technology driven, iterative upgrading, and ecological construction" in accordance with the idea of "consolidation and expansion and in-depth application", and accelerates the transformation and transformation of "digital intelligence".
1. Build an innovative digital infrastructure environment. Digital workforce construction first requires a strong infrastructure platform that provides sufficient data and computing power. Based on mainstream technologies in the industry, ABC has carried out independent innovation and research and development, built an intelligent cloud computing platform, effectively supported the development of the bank's business, and laid a solid underlying infrastructure for digital employees. At the same time, it has built an intelligent data lake platform covering batch computing, streaming computing, data delivery, etc., with multi-source heterogeneous data collection capabilities, powerful data storage and computing capabilities, and perfect data management and service capabilities, which can meet the flexible and diverse data needs of digital employees, provide sufficient data and computing resources for digital employee applications such as intelligent customer service, customer marketing, and counter terminals, and let the system pay more attention to the mining of data value.
2. In-depth evolution of digital employee core technology. The essence of the digital employee is the deep integration of artificial intelligence technology and business needs. At present, AI technology has developed rapidly, initially replacing some repetitive work, and the capabilities of digital employees have also achieved a leap from perception to cognition. By introducing the latest research results such as AI, NLP, OCR, etc., ABC has comprehensively upgraded artificial intelligence technology and built an intelligent digital employee platform, which can provide a variety of artificial intelligence technology services, reduce the threshold for intelligent technology application, and reduce the construction cost of digital employee application system.
3. Establish a self-iterative upgrade system for digital employees. As a set of executable computer programs, digital employees can learn more skills through repeated iteration of models and continuous simulation and optimization of data, truly achieve "anthropomorphism", and form productivity. By strengthening machine learning, strengthening the application of computer vision, speech recognition technology, natural language processing and other technologies, ABC has built a highly anthropomorphic intelligent customer service platform to provide customized personalized intelligent services, and in the process of service, through learning to identify user emotions, speech skills to stimulate user interest, guide users to choose products, recommend products in a timely manner, and improve customer service experience. At the same time, the system will automatically record the operation data of digital employees, generate work summary reports, and evaluate them by business personnel to form new training data resources, continuously improve the maturity of digital employees, and improve the intelligence and professionalism of digital employees.
4. Build a digital employee ecosystem. The digital employee ecosystem includes job setup, digital operations, risk assessment, and more. In the construction of the digital employee ecosystem, ABC has set up a professional team, and the operation management department and the science and technology line are strengthening the application of scenarios in credit cards, accounting, operation management, human resources, financial investment and other business fields, establishing a bank-wide robot process automation operation management mechanism and operation management system, improving the operation management function of the platform, enhancing the full life cycle management capabilities such as demand assessment and development management, operation monitoring, and daily operation and maintenance, while strictly preventing the risks caused by the introduction of digital employees. Including possible risks of leakage of sensitive customer and business information, system security management risks, etc.
Agricultural Bank of China's digital employee practice exploration
1. Technology leadership, create an intelligent digital employee platform. ABC's intelligent digital employee platform (see figure) is committed to providing unified automation and artificial intelligence technology services, lowering the threshold for digital employee technology application and supporting rapid business development. First, the platform is built according to the three-layer architecture design idea of "background heavy support, middle platform strong service, and front office active application", in which the background basic layer provides the underlying basic service support for the digital employee platform and provides sufficient data computing and AI capabilities; The middle office service layer mainly provides unified services such as RPA process automation, AI technology, and BI data, simplifying the call of upper-layer applications of digital employees and lowering the application threshold of digital employees. The front desk application layer mainly includes digital employee products such as virtual digital humans, intelligent customer service, and smart marketing. Second, the platform provides standardized and componentized services, and the service modules are fully decoupled from each other, and the application of personalized scenarios can be realized through combination and reuse. Third, the platform also supports module expansion and upgrade capabilities, which can easily introduce or upgrade more advanced and practical technology stacks according to the development of cutting-edge technologies and the needs of actual scenarios without affecting the overall architecture of the platform. Fourth, the platform also has the ability of self-iteration and self-renewal, and can establish a closed-loop self-learning system of data collection and feedback analysis through the closed-loop circulation management of data by the AI engine, so that digital employees can continue to iterate in their work, exert practical results, and continuously improve service quality and efficiency.
Figure Intelligent digital employee platform architecture
2. Business-driven, accelerate the application of digital employee scenarios. The in-depth application of digital employees is inseparable from the rapid development of business. In the process of "digital intelligence" transformation, ABC has continuously explored the scenario application of digital employees, and achieved good results in the fields of counter terminals, intelligent customer service, smart marketing, robotic process automation, and metaverse. First, in terms of robotic process automation, since 2019, we have actively explored the application field of RPA technology, with the operation management department as the business lead department to promote and popularize RPA technology throughout the bank to help the digital transformation of the whole bank. At present, the whole bank has launched thousands of RPA automation processes online, including typical application scenarios of head offices, branches, and wealth management subsidiaries, involving credit cards, accounting, operation management, human resources, wealth management and other business fields, which greatly reduces manual pressure. Second, in terms of intelligent customer service, relying on the intelligent digital employee platform, combined with NLP (natural language processing), ASR (speech recognition), TTS (speech synthesis), AR (augmented reality) and other cutting-edge technologies, to create "Lingxi AI" digital customer service, covering all types of banking retail finance and corporate finance and other types of business, supporting text, voice, video and other all-media channel access, supporting mobile, web, telephone and other full use scenarios, to achieve 7×24-hour online services. It greatly improves the intelligent service ability for internal and external customers. "Lingxi AI" can not only provide customers with intelligent text, voice robots and other services through the docking of the bank's knowledge base, but also has powerful data analysis functions, can monitor a number of digital customer service operation indicators, help digital customer service continuously improve business scenarios, optimize service strategies, and is the intelligent responsibility of the remote channel of ABC. Third, in terms of smart marketing, relying on the intelligent digital employee platform, create smart marketing products such as "Yingkebao", adopt marketing strategies based on AI and big data analysis, carry out personalized marketing according to customer characteristics, achieve multi-channel "senseless" customer acquisition, and quickly identify customer identity; Use big data "second-level" computing to comprehensively portray customer portraits; Call the "multi-dimensional" push of the message terminal to refine and display customer information; Connect the "personalized" customization of the product library, accurately configure marketing suggestions, and provide customers with panoramic financial services. Fourth, in the application of counter terminals, research and development and promotion of super counters, Taibai counters, digital shelves, etc., the introduction of branch intelligent equipment, accelerate the lightweight and intelligent transformation of branches, through the interconnection of branch equipment and online channels and digital employees of remote banking centers, to achieve "online-offline-remote" three channels of collaborative services and collaborative marketing, to provide customers with intelligent service experience, to provide intelligent auxiliary support for branch marketing. Fifth, in terms of metaverse applications, based on AI, digital twin, VR/AR interaction and other technologies, it has created a self-developed "Lingjing" metaverse platform to empower users to carry out personalized content production and diversified scene editing, and currently opens a customizable virtual exhibition hall (cloud hall) based on online exhibition business, realizing virtual reality scenarios such as precious metal mall, technology conference and light cloud competition, and completing the preliminary exploration of digital employee technology on the metaverse.
3. Value creation, build a digital employee operation system. In order for digital employees to continue to produce practical results and gradually replace their own employees, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of digital employee operation systems. On the basis of fully absorbing the advanced experience of the same industry and combining the actual situation, ABC has clarified the operation mode design ideas of "overall business management, comprehensive popularization of science and technology, and centralized implementation of all lines", built a "three-in-one" digital employee operation management system, improved the ABC's digital employee operation and management mechanism from three aspects: capability improvement, product construction and service evaluation, and promoted the value output of digital employees. The first is to continuously improve the technical capabilities of digital employees. Deepen the development of AI, big data, cloud computing and other digital employee-related innovative technologies, actively explore the integration of digital employee scenario applications, promote the division of labor and cooperation of "AI + manpower" and complement each other, accelerate the application of digital employees, and promote the comprehensive and rapid growth of digital employees' capabilities. The second is to continue to standardize the construction of digital employee products. Establish and improve the operation and management mechanism of digital employee products, improve the operation and management functions of the digital employee platform, and enhance the full life cycle management capabilities of digital employee products, such as demand assessment and development management, operation monitoring, daily operation and maintenance, and product iteration. The third is to continue to improve the digital employee service evaluation system. Design multi-dimensional business data indicators for digital employees, establish evaluation systems such as digital employee service feedback and work efficiency, and realize quantifiable, evaluable and replicable operation and management capabilities for digital employees.
4. Establish rules and regulations, and explore the construction of digital employee system. As a "virtual human", digital employees are essential for large-scale application. Based on the individual characteristics of digital employees, ABC is exploring norms related to the construction of digital employees. The first is to clarify the basic management requirements of digital employees, through the research of digital employee needs of the head office, formulate medium and long-term digital employee strategic planning, clarify the relevant specifications of digital employees, and currently formulate RPA project management methods and implementation rules, including "RPA project management measures" and "RPA project management implementation rules", etc., to support the full life cycle online management process of digital employee projects in the head office, simplify the R&D management process, and provide strong support for scene mining, incubation construction, operation monitoring, etc. of digital employees. The second is to formulate business process processing specifications for digital employees, clarify work objectives and processes in business fields such as accounting, credit, and customer service, and strive to improve the professionalism and standardization of digital employees. At the same time, by constructing a digital employee work monitoring view, timely grasp the dynamic information of digital employees, reasonably guide the work and learning behaviors of digital employees, and strengthen the dynamic management of digital employee behaviors.
Summary and outlook
In the context of the strong attack of the digital economy, all commercial banks are deeply exploring the value of data, making full use of data + algorithms, to achieve business transformation and upgrading, digital employees as a new type of virtual people, the role of digital employees in the digital transformation of banks is increasing, Agricultural Bank of China is accelerating the promotion of digital employee capacity building, so that digital employees play an important role in digital transformation, promote the transformation of Agricultural Bank of China "digital intelligence".
In the future, ABC will build a new intelligent technology team for digital employees based on the bank's digital transformation development strategy, closely focus on the idea of "consolidation, expansion, and in-depth application", broaden the breadth and depth of digital employees' applications, strengthen the collaboration between digital employees and their own employees, continuously upgrade digital employees in terms of technology, systems, operations, scenarios, etc., and continuously improve the quality and efficiency of business management and financial services. The first is to deepen the technical thickness of digital employees, strengthen the innovation of AI technology, integrate reinforcement learning, recommendation algorithms with trusted AI, federated learning and other advanced algorithm models, empower digital employees to solve complex business scenarios with automation capabilities, accelerate the construction of knowledge graph platform, introduce key capabilities such as event maps and real-time maps, improve digital employee perception systems and cognitive capabilities, and provide capability support for giving full play to the quality and efficiency of digital employee application services. The second is to improve the norms of the digital employee system, establish a digital employee information security system, run information security through the entire process of digital employee application, clarify the responsibilities and obligations of all parties, standardize the development order of digital employees, and truly achieve that digital information security responsibilities are clear, manageable and controllable, and have traces to follow. The third is to continue to strengthen the operation capabilities of digital employees. Further improve the digital employee operation system, driven by business goals, make digital employees proficient in business, fully display digital employees' business capabilities, and conduct data mining and analysis of operations, locate and solve business pain points, break through business bottlenecks, and improve the lean operation capabilities of digital employees in business fields. The fourth is to continue to explore digital employee intelligent service scenarios, on the basis of existing successful and replicable scenarios, make use of the characteristics of high intensity, high load and high skills of digital employees, so that digital employees can participate in complex, irregular and uncertain business scenarios, expand and broaden the application of digital employees in intelligent decision-making, intelligent R&D, intelligent operation and maintenance, and continuously adapt to the digital transformation needs of the banking industry, and promote the improvement of banking service efficiency and level.
(Column Editor: Zhang Lixia)