The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) will extend its existing AI partnership with Microsoft, with the pair agreeing to further develop generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) and cybersecurity solutions.
The pair have confirmed a ‘letter of intent’ to collaborate on a range of initiatives, with plans to expand the bank’s existing use of Microsoft Copilot, a Gen AI assistance program, making use of the tool to help resolve customer queries and support CBA staff operations.
The bank is already making use of Copilot, a large language model (LLM) embedded within the Microsoft 365 software suite, to help staff in tasks such as market research and text summarisation. As well, CBA has adopted GitHub Copilot for its engineering team, a pair programming capability that enables users to generate context-specific code, through natural language prompts.
Similar in scope to the publicly available ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Gen AI system Copilot is able to act on users’ commands to create, edit, synthesise or analyse a variety of content. This includes the outputting of text (such as the drafting of documents or spreadsheets, or the creation of computer code) and images.
The new deal will also provide opportunities to increase collaboration between CBA and Microsoft’s engineering teams through AI “to share knowledge and solutions to deliver more for customers”.
As part of the agreement, the big four bank and the bigtech will also share cyber intelligence, with a promise to develop tools to uplift CBA business customers’ security and increase overall sovereign cyber skills capability through AI.
Gavin Munroe, CBA’s group executive, technology and group CIO, said the ongoing partnership with Microsoft will enable the bank to “deliver technology that will allow customers to interact with CBA seamlessly and resolve queries faster than ever before”.
“We also see this as an opportunity to work together with leading global technology teams to ensure CBA’s safety and security is constantly upgraded and improved, to keep pace with the evolving threat landscape.”
He noted that engineers from Microsoft’s Seattle headquarters had already started working with CBA on a set of experiments with real-life use cases to improve the bank’s customers’ experience.
Steven Worrall, managing director of Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, said the tech giant was “very excited” to strengthen its partnership with the bank, “helping it set new benchmarks in customer and employee experiences, operational efficiency and innovation”.
“Microsoft will continue working closely with CommBank to realise AI’s full potential in line with the bank’s strategy to deliver world-leading digital experiences and technology.”
He added that the collaboration will also “go beyond immediate business outcomes, addressing critical societal challenges through enhanced cybersecurity and sovereign capability development”.
“Together, we aim to not only enhance the security posture of CommBank and its customers but also increase Australia’s resilience against evolving cyber threats.
“This partnership underscores our dedication to fostering a safer, more secure digital environment for all Australians.”
