DBS Rolls Out Gen AI-Powered Chatbot to All Corporate Clients

DBS today announced the official launch of its newly-enhanced virtual assistant for corporate clients known as “DBS Joy”. Powered by generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), DBS Joy^[1] provides clients with 24/7 access to a virtual agent with the ability to address their unique corporate banking queries.

DBS Joy provides instant answers to frequently asked queries and common requests, enabling customers to have much more detailed and personalised responses. For complex servicing needs, the virtual agent automatically connects users to a customer service specialist, who is in turn equipped with a digital co-pilot which helps them provide more tailored support to clients. Users can access the service via the bank’s digital banking platform, IDEAL.

Since early trials of the new features started in February, DBS Joy has managed over 120,000 unique chats and counting. About 4,000 corporate clients, the vast majority of which are small and medium enterprises, now use the service every month. Usage is expected to grow as awareness of the enhanced service increases.

In addition to quicker responses and shorter wait times, users of the virtual agent were also more satisfied with their experience, with customer satisfaction scores improving by over 23% in the same period.

Chen Ze Ling, Group Head of Corporate and SME Banking, DBS, said: “At DBS, our dedication to empowering SMEs fuels our continuous innovation in how we deliver positive customer experiences. In line with our commitment to be an AI-enabled bank with a heart, our latest iteration of DBS Joy represents a major leap forward as it offers instant and intelligent support to customers, while enabling our SME relationship managers to deliver more focused and value-added engagements to clients.”

This initiative is the latest in DBS’ ongoing efforts to blend the best of machine intelligence with human empathy and intuition, to drive enhanced and trusted customer experiences.

Developed in-house, the virtual agent integrates large language models with the bank’s proprietary knowledge base. This enables it to move beyond pre-programmed static answers to dynamic responses which are conversational and contextual.

Following extensive testing and calibration, combined with direct customer feedback, the system has learnt to respond to client queries with a high level of accuracy. In addition, responses are concurrently filtered through several layers of internal checks and safeguards based on a set of rules and parameters to mitigate risk. Post-call, experienced customer service agents, known as DBS Joy evaluators, further assess the quality of responses and suggest improvements, where applicable.

Welson Jamin, Group Head of Operations at DBS, said: “DBS Joy enables customers to access information quickly, efficiently, and accurately. For customers who choose to speak with a human service specialist, we are also implementing Gen AI to support employees by enabling faster data retrieval, providing concise recommendations and improving response times to customer queries. This reduces employees’ effort and allows them to focus on work that involves human judgement to address client needs.”

Kelvin Ong, BusinessCare DBS Joy evaluator, said: “As an evaluator, I play a critical role in building a trustworthy and efficient virtual agent for our customers. My assessment of user chats acts as a vital quality assurance step to enable accurate and reliable responses through the tool. In addition, proactive callbacks to clarify any inaccuracies are essential for refining the system’s knowledge base. My work empowers customers with instant, correct answers about bank products and services 24/7, boosting satisfaction and their ability to manage their financial needs confidently.”

Ong served as a BusinessCare customer service specialist for over two-and-a-half years before being trained as an evaluator. He also underwent upskilling to manage the virtual agent’s digital learning platform.

Looking ahead, DBS aims to increase the functionality of DBS Joy in line with growing customer needs. The bank also plans to progressively roll out the service to other core markets including Hong Kong and India.

The bank’s efforts to meaningfully integrate Gen AI in its operations have been recognised on the global stage. In October, Global Finance named DBS the World’s Best AI Bank on the back of its early and extensive deployment of AI models, strong experimentation culture, data-driven workforce, and robust execution capabilities. In 2024, Harvard Business School chronicled the bank’s AI strategy in a case study, the first of its kind done on an Asian bank.