MalaysiaFinance and insurance2024 – ongoingHong Leong Bank
AI voice bots for outbound collection calls
Hong Leong Bank's AI collection agents lifted productivity 15-fold and cut costs by 86%
Problem
Collection calls to customers with overdue payments need many human callers. Most outbound calls follow predictable scripts, which makes them repetitive and costly to staff.
Approach
In the second half of its financial year to June 2024, the bank started using AI voice bots for outbound collection calls. Each bot handles up to 16 lines at once. The CEO said the bots keep learning on their own. The bank also uses AI in telemarketing, while its customer service agents were still in training.
Results
Takeaway
The bank began with outbound calls, where scripts and likely replies are the most predictable. Customer service, where it saw larger potential savings, came later.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Finance and insurance
- Business function
- Production and quality
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Conversational and voice AI
- Adoption
- Built in-house
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
Reports the CEO's comments at the bank's FY24 results briefing. AI-driven collection agents were 15 times as productive and costs fell 86%. Each voice bot handles up to 16 simultaneous calls, and the system took over work of more than 20 human agents. The rollout began in the second half of the financial year.
Full details are in the original sources.
