Data, financial and non-financial, are essential for Rabobank. Chief innovation and technology officer Bart Leurs says in Management Scope that the bank is temporarily stepping on the AI ​​brake: first get data governance and data management in order.

 

In brief:

• Rabobank does not view AI as hype, but as breakthrough technology
• The company is careful not to rush into new technology
• Rabobank also wants to train all employees in advance

 

According to Bart Leurs, chief innovation and technology officer of Rabobank, Artificial intelligence is not a hype, but a breakthrough technology. Leurs is firmly convinced that AI can help solve major social issues. Rabobank wants to play an important role in this, particularly in the areas of food & agri, the energy transition and an inclusive society. But developments in generative AI are moving so fast that Rabobank is temporarily putting the brakes on.

There are many opportunities and there is no area where AI technology will not fail – whether it is sustainability or detecting fraudulent practices. However, the preconditions for Rabobank are clear: the data management must be in order, the data models used must be good. That is to say: explainable algorithms, without bias. “Many of our core processes already run on data and algorithms. Fewer and fewer decisions are being made by people. If a customer does not get a mortgage, we must always be able to explain why,” says Leurs.

All employees are trained on data analytics

Everything stands or falls with solid data management and data governance. That is why the bank invested heavily in a data management master plan. Leurs sums up: “Parts of this are all employees data analytics training and that data and technology also form a strategic learning point within the Executive Board. Another important step is that we invest in technology that is future-proof. On our new Global Data Platform we will soon have all the company's data in one place and we will be able to load unlimited data. We must ensure that our 42.000 people handle data correctly and that ultimately there is reliable and high-quality data in our platform.”

Repairs

Another part of the master plan is that the bank has invested a lot of time in data governance. Leurs explains that system fields have been filled in incorrectly in the past – think of a note from a mortgage advisor or the use of a comma instead of a full stop. A large number of employees have been working on repairing those data fields so that the data can be used for algorithms.

Leurs expects the importance of data and algorithms to grow exponentially. This is partly due to the rapid developments in the field of gen AI, or generative AI; complex technology has become so much more accessible. Thanks to prompt engineering, you no longer need to be able to code to develop software; you just need to be able to give commands. With a program like GitHub Copilot, they can code better, faster and more error-free. That acceleration is going fast, so fast that sometimes we can no longer control it.”

AI stop

To guarantee that the bank deals with AI in a proper, ethical manner, the Executive Board has recently announced a temporary AI stop. “We saw that developers were very enthusiastic about experimenting with, for example, ChatGPT and Google BARD, another AI tool for generating codes. As a bank, we do not want certain codes to be shared or customer data to end up on platforms of American tech companies. We are not allowed to do that either, our customer data is well protected. Therefore, no one is currently allowed to use ChatGPT or Google BARD work.” Rabobank first wants to create a secure environment in which this can be done responsibly.

The bank now wants to quickly map out which interventions are needed to limit the risks. “After that, we immediately take up the opportunities that AI offers,” says Leurs.

Read the full article on Management Scope

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