Westpac NZ is the first major New Zealand company to deploy the Microsoft platform with built-in AI to help employees have better conversations with customers and reduce contact center wait times.
Last week, Westpac began rolling out its Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform. When a customer calls a bank, the AI component of CCaaS supports customer service agents by automatically providing the customer’s relevant bank profile and information about the products the customer may ask about in real time. All Westpac contact centers are based in New Zealand.
The announcement comes as new research from banks shows general support for AI being used to improve banking services.
In a nationally representative survey of 529 people conducted by research platform Ideally, 65% of respondents said they were comfortable or neutral about the idea of banks using AI to help contact center employees answer questions faster (45% comfortable, 20% neutral), and 70% said they were comfortable or neutral about AI being used for fraud and fraud detection (49% were comfortable and 21% were neutral).
Westpac NZ chief information officer Russell Jones said the introduction of new technology was an important step.
“We’re really excited to be the first bank in New Zealand and one of the first in the world to implement CCaaS,” Jones says.
“We are also very pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Microsoft developers from around the world on the implementation of CCaaS in our business, meaning it was specifically configured for Westpac’s needs.
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