AI Finance Use Cases: Innovations from GXS Bank

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the financial services industry, from streamlining operations to creating new products. GXS Bank, a digital bank in Singapore, has been at the forefront of adopting both traditional AI and generative AI (GenAI) to address pressing challenges like fraud detection and customer service. In a recent interview, Dr. Geraldine Wong, Chief Data Officer (CDO) at GXS Bank, shared insights into the bank’s AI experimentation and how these technologies are improving operations and transforming customer experiences.

In this blog, we’ll explore some of the key AI use cases at GXS Bank, from leveraging chatbots to automating fraud detection and creating new financial products. Some quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity. 

AI-powered customer service: Streamlining support with chatbots

One of the most immediate applications of AI at GXS Bank is customer service chatbots. Wong’s team is currently exploring how chatbots could support internal agents in delivering faster, more accurate responses to customer inquiries. The primary goal is to reduce the time customer service representatives spend searching for information and decrease the number of interactions needed to resolve issues.

Wong explains,"The general use case that we have, like many others, is about chatbots. But how do we use the chatbot to first help internal customer service agents do their job better, to retrieve information quicker so that they can answer the customers faster?"

One of the biggest challenges, Wong notes, is keeping up with the frequent updates to product information. GXS Bank releases new products regularly, each with its own nuances and details, which means the chatbot must have access to up-to-date documentation to be effective. By streamlining this process with AI, GXS Bank seeks to improve response times while maintaining accuracy, ensuring that customers receive the most current information.

Automating fraud detection: How GXS Bank uses AI to strengthen security

AI isn’t just helping GXS Bank improve customer service—it’s also revolutionizing back-office operations, particularly in fraud detection. Fraud prevention in banking typically involves a lot of manual work, from verifying customer applications to reviewing transactions. By applying both traditional AI and GenAI, GXS Bank will automate these tasks and reallocate resources to higher-value work.

"We’re trying to leverage AI, both traditional AI as well as generative AI, to shorten that process. My hope is to be able to move the first line of defense to the second line of defense," says Wong. “Imagine GenAI being the first line...and that would create higher value order work for the second level – our people.”

In this model, AI acts as the “maker,” handling routine fraud checks and onboarding tasks, while human employees focus on more complex cases. This shift will allow GXS Bank to operate more efficiently, reducing the workload of front-line staff and enhancing the overall security of its systems.

GenAI in action: Creating new products and revenue streams at GXS Bank

Beyond improving operational efficiency, Wong and her team are also exploring how AI can drive product innovation and create new revenue streams. While most current AI applications focus on task-level automation, Wong sees enormous potential for GenAI to play a bigger role in product development.

"What we haven't seen much of is how GenAI has created new banking products," Wong says. "If you think about AI being part of a product manager's toolkit, you can go to different segments of your consumers, see what their pain points are, do the summarization, and then say, ‘Hey AI, can you create a new product that matches the needs of the majority of this segment?’"

This iterative process, where AI helps generate and refine new product ideas, could drastically shorten the product development cycle and lead to offerings that better meet customer needs. Wong believes that AI’s role in product management will grow in the coming years, unlocking new opportunities for revenue generation.

AI governance at GXS: Steering innovation while managing risk

Experimenting with AI in a regulated industry like banking comes with its challenges, particularly in managing risk and ensuring compliance. To address this, GXS Bank has established a GenAI Steering Committee, which includes senior leaders from risk and compliance, to guide AI initiatives and ensure they align with the bank’s strategic goals.

"We’ve set up a GenAI Steering Committee which includes our  Group CEO, along with risk and compliance representatives. They help us steer and guide our AI projects and give us oversight on where to streamline and focus," Wong explains.

This governance framework ensures that AI projects meet regulatory requirements and provide long-term business value. By striking a balance between innovation and risk management, GXS Bank can experiment with AI while maintaining the trust of its customers and stakeholders.

AI as a workflow revolution: Transforming GXS Bank's operations

AI’s potential impact at GXS Bank goes beyond individual tasks – it's about transforming entire workflows. Wong envisions AI playing a central role in automating processes across different functions, from procurement to finance, allowing for greater efficiency at an enterprise level.

"Today, we see pockets of task-level impact, like information retrieval and summarization. But the enterprise-level impact I’d like to see is about how we create new workflows with AI across functions, like automating an entire procurement process," says Wong.

Wong sees the greatest potential for AI in this shift from task-level automation to workflow transformation. By integrating AI across departments, GXS Bank can create more streamlined, efficient operations, freeing up employees to focus on higher-value work.

Conclusion

AI is more than just a tool for automating tasks at GXS Bank—it's a driver of innovation and a critical component of the bank’s future strategy. From improving customer service with chatbots to automating fraud detection and generating new products, AI is helping GXS Bank operate more efficiently and deliver better outcomes for its customers. 

With a strong governance framework in place, the bank is poised to continue exploring how AI can create value across the organization while managing the risks that come with adopting new technologies. As Geraldine Wong puts it, AI’s real potential lies in its ability to transform not just tasks, but entire workflows, opening the door to new possibilities in the financial services industry.

Learn how GXS Bank leverages a data catalog to support AI-driven decision making. Read the case study.