Christian Polenz, CEO of Teambank, in an interview about the potential of AI in customer interfaces, the relevance of practical guidelines and the emerging demand for specialists in AI fields.
How do you use AI at TeamBank – what is the goal and what else is planned?
POLENZ We conducted a comprehensive preliminary study in which we analyzed the application scenarios of AI, and GenAI in particular, along a process map, determined the expected benefits and implementation costs, and then prioritized them accordingly. The aim is to give employees access to GenAI tools as quickly as possible.
Strategically, we focus on the customer interface. We want to improve it with AI and provide our customers with highly personalized support in all phases of the relationship. “TeamBank GPT,” which we are currently setting up, will give our employees secure and data protection-compliant access to ChatGPT. In the customer experience, we aim to provide our customers with comprehensive support in all service and sales processes via chatbots and voicebots.
We also use AI internally wherever we can exploit efficiency and effectiveness potential for the entire company.
How do you deal with data protection/copyright or discrimination risks?
POLENZ We take these risks very seriously. Adherence to regulatory and legal compliance is essential when using GenAI. We have therefore developed our own AI policy that provides employees with specific guidelines for their work with the tools. This ensures transparency and the traceability of the results.
How do you secure AI skills within the company? How do you ensure that the necessary skills are developed within the workforce?
POLENZ When building AI skills, we differentiate between the development of models and their use. In order to develop our own AI models in a targeted manner, we set up our data analytics division back in 2017. There, our experts dealt with the topic of AI long before ChatGPT triggered all of the hype a year ago.
To what extent will AI make specialists in your industry obsolete and where do you think new needs will arise?
POLENZ We see AI technologies as tools that complement – and not replace – human skills. For us, GenAI is a “co-worker” that makes everyday working life more efficient and creates space for value-adding activities. Other AI tools are able to automate entire workflows, which also frees up resources for more strategically important tasks.
New needs are arising primarily in the development, operation, and maintenance of AI technologies. But there are also new requirements in areas such as regulation, ethics, and cyber security.
About Christian Polenz:
Christian Polenz is CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of TeamBank. As part of the DZ BANK Group, the bank stands for long-term liquidity support for its customers and is active on the German and Austrian markets together with its partners. In April 2024, Polenz took up his position as CEO at the bank, which has been writing a success story with the easyCredit brand for over 20 years.
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