French banking and financial services company BNP Paribas is ramping up its integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across its operations. The bank said its recently organised 7th AI Summer School was attended by over 4,000 employees from various divisions. In light of these numbers, the Chief Data Officer of BNP Paribas emphasised that AI has evolved into a cross-divisional priority, impacting teams such as Sales, Marketing, Compliance, Risk, and Legal.
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AI Adoption Across BNP Paribas
"BNP Paribas is entering a new phase in the integration of artificial intelligence, with more than 750 use cases already in production and strong ambitions for further development," the bank said on Tuesday.
According to the officer, much of the discussion at the event focused on Generative AI, alongside the importance of training and collaboration with external partners. This was exemplified by a new partnership agreement recently signed with Mistral AI, a French company focused on developing large language models (LLMs) for various applications.
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Customer Insights and Experience
"At BNP Paribas, artificial intelligence is already widely used in our operations, with more than 750 use cases in production across the bank," said Hugues Even, Chief Data Officer of BNP Paribas.
"And as we announced to the market at the beginning of the year, the integration of artificial intelligence into our systems should enable us to generate EUR 500 million by 2025," he added.
The bank is particularly using AI to gain deeper insights into customers and improve their experience, optimise operational efficiency, and strengthen risk management, especially in terms of cybersecurity.
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"The gradual introduction of generative AI has already led to significant progress, particularly in personalising services and creating new opportunities to add value. In all circumstances, we are taking an agile, prudent and responsible approach, with a firm conviction that AI integrated into BNP Paribas should support teams in repetitive and time-consuming tasks, while leaving expertise, dialogue and decision-making to humans," Hugues explained.
Focus on Internal AI Skill Development
Hugues highlighted the necessity of developing internal skills, noting the bank's community of 3,000 data and AI specialists, including 700 data scientists and AI business analysts, spread across various businesses and functions.
Additionally, the bank said it is continually recruiting experts to strengthen its technical skills in areas such as data processing, machine learning, generative AI, and NLP (natural language processing).
Training programs are underway to ensure employees can effectively leverage AI technologies while maintaining ethical and regulatory standards, the Chief Data Officer said.
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AI to be at Heart of Strategic Plan
"Artificial Intelligence will most likely be at the heart of our next strategic plan, and Generative AI will be a key component. In the coming months and years, we will continue to automate many critical processes, such as speeding up sales processes and making marketing campaigns more effective, while optimising repetitive administrative tasks and developing solutions to improve the customer experience, particularly through personalised and proactive interactions," Hugues added.
The bank says it is committed to responsible AI use, particularly in sustainable finance and ESG assessments, and will continue collaborating with industry players to ensure best practices in AI deployment.
