Nedbank and Microsoft are collaborating to test and improve Copilot, a new generative AI tool for Microsoft 365 productivity apps.

Nedbank in South Africa is expanding its AI capabilities by investigating 40 new data and AI analytics use cases, the bank has said.

Nedbank and Microsoft are collaborating to test and improve Copilot, a new generative AI tool for Microsoft 365 productivity apps.

“We are exploring Microsoft’s AI technology to strengthen our productivity, enhance processes, reduce risk, and boost creativity,” Nedbank said.

The news came as the bank today announced its interim financial results for the first six months of the year, ended June 30.

Nedbank CEO Mike Brown described the bank's digital journey throughout the period. He said: "We have invested significantly in our data capabilities, leveraging big data and AI through strong analytics teams.

"While we are still in the early stages of our technology journey, the progress we have made is critical for seamless integration and rapid adoption of AI capabilities.

"We have already delivered a number of AI solutions that have generated benefits by utilising machine learning and data science techniques to make intelligent data-driven decisions, such as next-best-action strategies to drive higher levels of cross-selling."

"In the future, we will be accelerating our AI capabilities by investigating an additional 40 data and AI analytics use cases."

According to a recent Salesforce report, South African IT leaders believe that generative AI will have a greater influence on their organisations than other emerging technologies.

It claims that AI will soon play a significant role in their organisations.

Furthermore, Brown said that Nedbank's digital activities assisted the company in increasing the number of digitally active retail clients in South Africa by 14% year-on-year (YoY) to 2.8 million, accounting for 69% of retail main-banked clients.

"Retail digital transaction volumes in SA increased by 15% (and by 103% since H1 2019)," he noted, adding that transaction values increased by 13% (and by 57% since H1 2019).

The proportion of digitally active clients in Nedbank’s Africa regions business increased from 57% to 60% year on year.

"Nedbank Insurance has extended its quoting, fulfilment, and claims functionality on digital channels to 15 product offerings (up from 10 in H1 2022) across six channels."

After being the first bank in Africa to launch an API platform (API Marketplace), Brown said Nedbank made ongoing progress in scaling the platform and driving open-banking strategy.

The number of third-party API Marketplace participants has climbed to 58, up from 48 in H1 2022, and 40 in H1 2021.

"In H1 2023, we expanded our API product offering to CMA countries (Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini), enabling EFT payments and wallet APIs," said Brown.