Faced with the acceleration of digitalization linked to the health crisis, and to adapt to competition, Societe Generale has announced its intention to exploit data further, using artificial intelligence in particular.
Data exploitation, a crucial challenge for financial players
Data and artificial intelligence are strategic issues for today's financial players, in a world where digital uses are accelerating.
" Becoming a data-driven bank, with a responsible use of data, is at the heart of our strategic agenda," said Societe Generale CEO Frédéric Oudéa in a recent press release. According to him, " the increased and responsible use of data, particularly with artificial intelligence, is a strategic lever ", which will offer several areas of improvement for Societe Generale: on the one hand, "adapting and improving its existing distribution and production models "; on the other, " inventing and growing new alternative business models ".
The analysis and exploitation of data by artificial intelligence is currently used by the Group in 4 main areas. Firstly, these technologies enable us to personalize our offers to customers, thanks to a better understanding of their profiles and expectations.
They are also used to improve the bank's responsiveness and provide answers to the most frequently asked questions, by means of chatbots. Internally, the main benefit of these technologies is that they enable the automation of the most repetitive tasks, or those with the least added value. Last but not least, they help reduce risk by quickly identifying customers in difficulty.
Societe Generale aims to develop the cloud
Societe Generale currently has 330 use cases involving data analytics, around 50% of which are based on artificial intelligence. Value creation, encompassing additional revenues and cost savings, is estimated at 230 million euros for the year 2021.
Societe Generale didn't wait for the Covid-19 crisis to begin its digital transformation, which began as early as 2017. By the end of 2018, the bank had launched the Synoé program, providing investment advice, particularly for life insurance contracts, personalized thanks to artificial intelligence and data analysis.
The bank also wants to intensify its use of the cloud. " Societe Generale has implemented a cloud first strategy for more open and flexible IT infrastructures, enabling the accelerated development of innovative digital services," the group points out in a press release.
Its cloud-first strategy was implemented back in 2017, with the first hybrid model, both public and private, launched in 2018. 2 years later, by the end of 2020, 80% of Societe Generale's servers were hosted in the cloud, whether first- or second-generation cloud.
The bank has set new targets, with priority given to the second-generation cloud, which should account for 75% of the cloud (50% private and 25% public) by 2025.
Societe Generale also relies on artificial intelligence to enhance security. It has developed two programs, Filae and Defi, dedicated respectively to the fight against money laundering and fraud detection.