Preparing for the Human & AI Innovator Team

Why Banking Needs Innovation Now More Than Ever

A highly competitive market with evolving customer needs means innovation has become vital for the banking sector. “We’re seeing the biggest wealth transfer ever recorded, and with younger generations taking control of finances, we need to address entirely new customer needs and desires.” For Anna-Lena, it’s about survival in an industry that’s changing faster than ever.

At ABN AMRO, innovation is built on three core pillars: human-centered design, lean and iterative processes, and portfolio thinking. These pillars guide their efforts, ensuring every project aims to address real customer issues while remaining adaptable and scalable.

Experimenting with Generative AI

One of the most exciting advancements at the bank is the introduction of generative AI. In a highly regulated industry, Anna-Lena and her team approach this cautiously, starting with just three use cases. Their initial experiments leveraged AI to streamline routine tasks such as interview script generation, assumption mapping, and ideation.

Anna-Lena explains, 'We do a lot of interviews with customers, so we took away the mundane tasks of writing the usual questions,' allowing AI to bring fresh perspectives to ideation. AI proved efficient and effective, prompting the team to continue iterating and expanding its use. At any given time, they tested 15 to 18 initiatives at various stages of the innovation funnel.

They explored a range of AI tools and features beyond basic generative capabilities. For example, they integrated Figma’s AI plugins into design stages and actively researched other tools that could enhance specific phases in the innovation process.

Now, ABN AMRO has rolled out GPT tools across the bank, integrating AI at every innovation stage. Anna-Lena’s team has already streamlined early-stage processes by handing over tasks like interview preparation, synthesis of customer insights, and persona creation to the customized GPT. This has significantly enhanced efficiency and accuracy.

A Perfect Blend of Efficiency and Quality

While AI offers an evident boost in efficiency, Anna-Lena stresses that it’s not just about speed. “AI also improved the accuracy of our work, catching things we might have missed.”

Working together with AI produced much more precise results. One benefit they were happy to discover was that humans and machines bring their own biases.
Integrating AI in future scenario workshops balanced human biases with AI insights, allowing the team to explore market possibilities more accurately through combined perspectives. This collaborative approach strengthened strategic foresight and helped identify emerging trends that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Another benefit was the ability to continuously test ideas with synthetic users. Her team successfully fed real customer interview data into the AI to create synthetic personas that offer additional insights with promising results. “While I can never go back to the person I've interviewed, I can go back to these users all the time,” Anna-Lena explains. This provided continuous and actionable feedback on prototypes and concepts and gave the team a level of flexibility and depth that wasn’t possible before.

Use Cases of AI in Action

Anna-Lena highlights several examples where AI has transformed internal processes. One of the most impactful areas has been market research. AI now handles the entire research phase, freeing the team to focus on strategic decision-making.

Another important area is the customer journey. AI plays a crucial role in creating personas and mapping out customer interactions. “Our teams now collaborate with AI to handle operational details, allowing us to focus on generating and prioritizing strategic ideas together. It’s this blend of human and AI input that shapes a strong, market-ready concept,” she notes.

In concept ideation, AI has helped generate a wide range of ideas that the team can refine and prioritize. They use a stage-gated, metrics-driven approach to validate and prioritize projects at each phase. Clear criteria help determine which initiatives should receive funding and continue to progress, ensuring a structured, scalable pipeline. “It’s the combination of the two that creates a good, solid idea that you can bring to market,” she says.

Balancing Human Touch and AI Power

Despite the obvious advantages, Anna-Lena acknowledges that AI can’t do everything. The human component is still essential, especially regarding empathy and critical thinking. She believes humans are crucial for asking the right questions and making intuitive connections that AI simply cannot.

One example is in interview synthesis. While AI can summarise interviews and extract key data points, the human element captures the emotional nuances (like facial expressions or tone of voice) that a machine can’t fully capture.

“Sometimes, when we summarize the interview with AI, it presents a lot of facts, but it's not what I see in an interview. I describe what I saw in someone's face, a reaction. This is something that the team can add,” she emphasizes.

Anna-Lena also stresses the importance of creativity. “The human touch really adds the key benefit. Asking the right questions to get the right ideation makes it a good output.” Empathy and creativity are core human qualities that are essential in crafting relevant solutions.

A Hybrid Approach for the Future

Looking ahead, Anna-Lena sees a future where human and AI collaboration becomes the norm. “I don't think we will do it purely as a Gen-AI innovation team. The human component really matters, especially since we're working human-centered”.

For Anna-Lena and her team, the journey toward integrating AI into their innovation processes is still ongoing, but the results are promising. “We’re getting new insights, things the human eye would have overlooked or not made that correlation. We get new ideas, discoveries that wouldn’t be achievable without AI."

The future of banking innovation may be uncertain, but one thing is clear: it will be shaped by the seamless collaboration of humans and AI.