KASIKORN Business-Technology Group (KBTG), the technology arm of KASIKORNBANK (KBank), is stepping up its digital transformation with its “Human-First x AI-First Transformation” strategy, with a goal to generate a 10-billion-baht business impact by 2029.
The organization achieved its first phase of digital transformation over the past three years, surpassing its five-year target and established itself as a leading tech organization in Southeast Asia.
KBTG is focusing on harnessing generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to unlock greater value from its data, streamline operations and amplify technology investments by commercialising innovative solutions and boosting internal productivity.
“At KBTG, AI transformation is not just about embracing new technology; it’s about enhancing the human experience and staying ahead in an increasingly competitive market,” Voranuch Dejakaisaya, executive chairman of KBTG, told the Bangkok Post.
In 2023, KBTG made significant investments in data platforms, mobile banking and core banking systems as well as cybersecurity, said Ms Voranuch.
“Our technology strategy focuses on being customer-centric, ensuring resilience, implementing robust backups, preventing data loss and minimising cybersecurity risks,” she said.
This year, KBTG’s vision is centred on leveraging AI by utilising cleansed data stored in the cloud, tapping into its scalability, flexibility and advanced tools. With the integration of GenAI, KBTG aims to unlock greater utility, improve efficiency and maximise the returns on its technology investments, said Ms Voranuch.
A key component of KBTG’s strategy is agentic AI — an AI model that operates autonomously and coordinates with other AI systems to carry out more complex tasks.
“Looking ahead, KBTG will focus on fostering collaboration between humans and AI while maintaining a human-centric approach.”
COMMERCIALISE AI
KBTG’s AI initiatives for this year are guided by two main objectives: commercialisation of AI from KBTG Labs, its own laboratory — such as eKYC (Know Your Customer) processes, chatbot automation and image recognition — in order to deliver innovative solutions.
It will use GenAI to boost employee productivity across various functions.
In terms of human resources, AI can enhance knowledge sharing and streamline repetitive tasks, replacing manual processes where appropriate.
By adopting these approaches, KBTG aims to increase efficiency, reduce time spent on mundane tasks and enable employees to focus on higher-value activities. This strategy will also allow the organisation to scale operations efficiently.
AI AND HUMAN TOUCH
To effectively leverage data, Ms Voranuch said it is essential to establish a strong foundation in governance, compliance, personally identifiable information, security, access control and analytics.
KBTG emphasises the importance of balancing AI with the human touch. Expertise, judgment and empathy — qualities unique to people — should complement AI, rather than relying solely on technology, Ms Voranuch said.
“This year, we are piloting several AI use cases to determine which ones will be maximised in their their usefulness. The bottom line is that customers deserve exceptional service, with timely and accurate responses to their needs.”
The foundation for this lies in data accuracy, which allows GenAI to assist humans in summarising vast amounts of data and generating scripts.
This requires a redesign of the KBTG infrastructure for scalability and resilience, with the ability to integrate external data for analysis and reduce dependency on IT personnel.
Ms Voranuch said in some cases, data science expertise will still be needed, and KBTG will develop smaller language models.
Ultimately, every employee must be trained to maximise the use of data to improve outcomes, she added.
In the coming year, KBTG will focus on fostering collaboration between humans and AI while maintaining a human-centric approach.
3+1 STRATEGY
Ms Voranuch said this year KBTG set a strategic IT budget of 8-9 billion baht. The focus lies in re-architecting end-to-end credit systems, upgrading wealth management platforms and using AI.
KBTG is ready to advance KBank’s Strategy 3+1. This involves utilising robust innovations and technologies to deliver IT excellence, reinforced by the K PLUS application, which boasts a service availability of up to 99.9%.
Moreover, KBank is focusing on improving the quality of loans by utilising GenAI to analyse credit quality, risk management, customer behaviours, non-performing loans and portfolio analysis.
“We will not only analyse internal customer data but also gather external data — such as global trends, climate change, fuel prices and gold prices — to gain deeper insights into risks and opportunities,” Ms Voranuch said.
GenAI plays a crucial role in understanding customers better. By analysing various data points, AI helps staff in wealth management services by providing valuable advisory tools.
Through data grouping, AI identifies sales opportunities, helping advisors tailor their approach to individual customers. This personalised advisory service is powered by AI, enabling more accurate customer profiling and helping financial advisors craft better solutions for wealth management and retail customers.
AI is also transforming customer interaction by generating sales scripts for advisors. These AI-generated scripts assist in wealth management and retail banking, ensuring that staff can approach customers with tailored, data-backed conversations.
With 23 million mobile banking customers, KBank is focused on enhancing channel efficiency by enabling self-service transactions, streamlining banking for retail customers, small and medium enterprises and corporate clients.
For regional expansion where it already has a presence such as in China, Vietnam and Indonesia, KBTG will bring its tech to explore opportunities and co-develop with its international human resources in these overseas markets.
Ms Voranuch said the tech strategy must align with the business to fill any gaps and enhance competitiveness.
“AI is a crucial turning point for the banking industry and technology within banks. It helps automate over 80% of tasks and enables senior-level programmers to review and validate codes. As a result, we need to upskill our workforce to keep pace with these advancements.”
TECH PARTNERS
KBTG utilises Huawei’s innovative storage, software defined networking and cloud services, while KBank gains access to Huawei’s customer network, particularly those using Huawei’s solar panel systems, who may be interested in KBank’s green loan offerings.
KBTG’s cloud policy embraces a multi-cloud approach, selecting applications and tools that can handle heavy, scalable workloads in the cloud.
Furthermore, technology procurement now requires a long-term vision, with a one-year outlook for preparedness.
“We select cloud providers based on standards, desired outcomes, compliance requirements and compatibility with our existing systems,” Ms Voranuch said.
AI-READY INFRASTRUCTURE
Sheldon Wang, senior vice president of enterprise business at Huawei Technologies (Thailand), said the company focuses on providing banks with AI-ready infrastructure designed to meet the security, resilience and high-performance needs of AI technologies.
Huawei’s emphasis on storage, networking and cloud platforms ensures the security and performance of data, critical for AI applications.
“AI-ready infrastructure supports the unique demands of AI by enabling data security, network resilience and high processing performance.”
“Our data management platform integrates data from various sources for efficient use. It allows banks to view data as a valuable asset for insights, analytics and AI, providing real-time dashboards to maximise data utilisation,” said Mr Wang.
This post was originally published on here
