AI and Blockchain set to revolutionize the banking landscape, as Lloyds Bank embraces the future of finance technology
In a strategic move to modernise its customer service operations and accelerate digital transformation, Lloyds Banking Group has introduced a generative AI tool named Athena. This initiative comes as part of the bank's broader digital transformation journey, which involves a planned investment of £4 billion.
1. **AI-Driven Customer Service Enhancement**
Lloyds has partnered with UnlikelyAI to test a new neurosymbolic AI platform in its innovation sandbox. This platform, which blends neural networks with symbolic reasoning, aims to provide more reliable, accurate, and explainable AI outputs. The goal is to integrate this AI alongside existing systems to improve customer-facing applications by providing consistent and trustworthy support.
2. **Generative AI Customer Knowledge Hub**
Lloyds recently launched its first large-scale generative AI knowledge hub. This tool, named Athena, is designed to assist customer service employees. By equipping staff with AI-driven insights and information, the hub enables quicker, better customer service responses while enhancing operational efficiency.
3. **Digital Workforce Empowerment Through AI Education**
To sustain its AI initiatives, Lloyds is building a digitally confident workforce through extensive training programs such as a data and AI summer school involving thousands of employees. This initiative focuses on generative AI, data strategy, machine learning, and innovation with AI—helping embed AI literacy and capability across the organisation.
4. **Blockchain Exploration**
Although no explicit Lloyds-specific blockchain initiatives in customer service were found, the financial industry, including Lloyds’ peers, actively explores blockchain technology for enhancing efficiency and security in transactional processes. Lloyds’ investment in digital transformation suggests potential expansion or integration of blockchain-based solutions in the near future to complement AI systems.
The deployment of Athena has been a transformational step for Lloyds. Since its launch, Athena has facilitated over 2.1 million searches conducted by around 21,000 Lloyds employees. Within the area of telephone banking alone, Lloyds anticipates that Athena will help save more than 4,000 work hours annually by accelerating internal lookups.
Customer wait times have decreased by approximately two-thirds as a result of the efficiency improvements brought about by Athena. The saved time is expected to be redirected toward resolving more complex customer inquiries.
Lloyds, Aberdeen Investments, and digital asset exchange Archax have collaborated to trial the use of tokenised real-world assets (RWAs) as collateral in foreign exchange (FX) trading. In this pilot initiative, tokenised versions of Aberdeen's money market fund units and UK government bonds (gilts) were used in FX transactions between Lloyds and Aberdeen. The assets were issued and settled using Archax's FCA-regulated infrastructure on the Hedera Hashgraph blockchain network.
The trial showcased the potential of digital assets to simplify processes and increase workflow efficiency, according to a senior product officer at Aberdeen Investments. The head of digital finance at Lloyds described the pilot as a major advancement, emphasising that tokenisation could optimise collateral use and pave the way for new trading opportunities. Archax's CEO viewed the collaboration as a significant achievement that further reinforces the UK's growing leadership in digital finance innovation.
Lloyds Banking Group, with a customer base of 28 million and experiencing close to two million monthly service interactions via phone and digital platforms, aims to expand the use of Athena across additional customer-facing teams. The bank aims to hit a milestone of 40 million searches by the end of 2025. Lloyds Banking Group expects to generate at least £50 million in additional revenue and productivity gains through AI-driven initiatives in 2025.
[1] UnlikelyAI. (n.d.). Neurosymbolic AI. UnlikelyAI. https://unlikely.ai/neurosymbolic-ai/ [2] Lloyds Banking Group. (2021). Lloyds Banking Group launches first large-scale generative AI knowledge hub to transform customer service. Business Wire. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210908005415/en/Lloyds-Banking-Group-Launches-First-Large-Scale-Generative-AI-Knowledge-Hub-to-Transform-Customer-Service [3] Lloyds Banking Group. (2021). Lloyds Banking Group announces new data and AI summer school for colleagues. Business Wire. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210804005779/en/Lloyds-Banking-Group-Announces-New-Data-and-AI-Summer-School-for-Colleagues [4] World Economic Forum. (2021). Blockchain in Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Path to Cross-Border Payments. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/reports/blockchain-in-central-bank-digital-currencies-a-path-to-cross-border-payments
- AI-Powered Solutions in Business Operations The neurosymbolic AI platform from UnlikelyAI, currently being tested by Lloyds Banking Group in their innovation sandbox, could potentially be integrated with business operations to streamline various processes, following the strategic partnership with the bank.
- AI Integration in the Realm of Technology and Finance By embracing technology and artificial intelligence, Lloyds is continuously striving to create an AI-driven knowledge hub for its customer service employees, demonstrating a fusion of business, technology, and artificial-intelligence components in its digital transformation journey.
