A few days ago, Ping An Bank’s first virtual digital person, “Xiaomei Su”, officially joined the ranks of the Internet.
The "Securities Daily" reporter noticed that many bank "digital employees" have joined and more bank "digital employees" are on the way.In addition, since the beginning of this year, many banks have issued announcements for virtual digital human bidding projects, which have become a project that many technology companies are competing for.
The industry generally believes that the introduction of "digital employees" by banks can reduce service costs, shorten business service radius, improve service efficiency, and better enhance customer experience, which is a win-win measure.
Multiple banks dabble in virtual digital humans
As an innovative application practice of financial technology, "digital employees" based on virtual digital human technology have been widely used in global banking and financial markets in recent years.In January 2022, the "Fintech Development Plan (2022-2025)" issued by the central bank clearly pointed out that digital elements should be injected into the whole process of financial services, digital thinking should be run through the entire chain of business operations, and focus on the technological drive and data empowerment of financial innovation. .
In this context, creating "digital employees" has become one of the more popular ways, and many banks are keen to "create people".For example, in February this year, Ningbo Bank Shanghai Branch announced that it welcomed the 001st virtual digital human employee "Xiao Ning"; in June, Ping An Bank's first virtual digital human "Su Xiaomei" officially joined and so on.
Earlier, at the end of 2021, Baixin Bank launched the first virtual digital employee "AIYA Aiya" and became the bank's "AI virtual brand officer"; VTM Digital Workforce".
"Securities Daily" noticed that the virtual digital people currently used in the banking industry can be divided into two types: identity type (image endorsement) and service type (practical type) according to different functions.Identity-based virtual people mainly include virtual brand/corporate image spokespersons, such as AIYA, the virtual brand officer of Baixin Bank, who is active in short videos, virtual live broadcasts, APPs and other scenarios, through immersive communication and interaction with users, To convey the brand concept; while the service-oriented virtual human is a virtual employee based on customer service. The main function is to broadcast information content and conduct customer service exchanges and dialogues.
In the past few days, reporters from Securities Daily have actually experienced the virtual digital people of many banks, and found that most of the "digital staff" service functions include broadcasting information content, and can conduct customer service exchanges and dialogues.On the whole, the level of realism is high and it is relatively convenient. There is no lag in the communication and dialogue of general business scenarios, and the interactive experience is good.
A number of interviewees from technology companies who have helped institutions create virtual digital people told the Securities Daily reporter, "Good interactive experience and the same convenient and smooth service experience for different customers are the basic requirements for 'digital employees'. In fact, banks are more strict and cautious in opening and launching digital people, and most banks value the immersiveness and security of digital people.”
"The interactive and immersive experience of virtual digital humans has greatly improved the sense of intimacy and distance that cannot be found in the current Internet form." The relevant person in charge of the Zhongguancun Kejin Artificial Intelligence Research Institute told the "Securities Daily" reporter that financial services are important for financial services. In other words, especially to form a business closed loop including consulting, trading, risk control, etc., it is not enough to simply have a high degree of anthropomorphism. It requires deep coupling between technology, products and business systems.Therefore, it is also necessary to feed back technology through the use of real business scenarios of banks, so as to promote the rapid iteration and optimization of virtual digital people.
Technology companies are busy "snatching bids"
With the deepening of the investigation, the reporter learned that in addition to the "digital employees" who have already joined the company, there are more virtual digital people of the bank "on the road".
For example, in January this year, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank issued an announcement on the solicitation of POC suppliers for the digital human system project; in March, the Beijing Zhongguancun Kejin Technology Co., Ltd. signed the procurement contract for the digital human function project of the smart outlets directly under the Chongqing Branch of Postal Savings Bank of China. The company successfully won the bid; in April, the official account of Nanjing Silicon-based Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. issued a document saying that it won the bid for the construction project of the AI service manager system of the Bank of Nanjing; in June, the Bank of Beijing announced the "multimodal digital human interaction platform new project" bidding The result was announced, and finally Baidu Netcom Technology Co., Ltd. became the transaction supplier at a price of 1 million yuan.
In addition to bidding, some banks are also conducting preliminary project demand research.For example, according to the bidding column of Tianyan Check, in April, China CITIC Bank launched the procurement demand research work of "China CITIC Bank 3D Virtual Digital Assistant Project".
"At present, technology companies are more enthusiastic about the digital targets of financial institutions, and digital people are only one of the tracks." A person familiar with the technology company told the "Securities Daily" reporter.
At the same time, judging from the data provided by a number of interviewed technology companies, the current price of technology companies' "bidding" is generally around 1 million yuan, but it needs to be emphasized that due to the technical capabilities used by digital people and the empowerment of business scenarios Complex and complex, so the price range is also very large.
"At present, the digital human projects that Zhongguancun Kejin helps financial institutions build are mainly aimed at scenarios such as wealth management products, stock reviews or research reports. These scenarios require fast and high-frequency video generation, and the way of replacing real people with virtual humans can just meet the application requirements. The relevant person in charge of the Zhongguancun Kejin Artificial Intelligence Research Institute said, "At present, technology companies are still actively exploring digital people, and everyone has different levels and involves a wide range of technologies. The outside world is more optimistic about the prospects of virtual digital people, but this industry It is still in the stage of massive investment.”
The industry generally believes that the active launch of "digital employees" by banks is a win-win for their own business development.Liu Bin, director of the Financial Research Office of Pudong Reform and Development Research Institute, believes that the first is that the bank's application of digital people can show the public's investment and ability in technological innovation; the second is that digital thinking runs through the entire chain of business operations and empowers it is the general trend of future banking business ; Third, digital people can make up for the deficiencies brought by human customers."In the future, with the continuous evolution and maturity of technology, virtual digital human applications are expected to play a role in the core business of banks."
Talking about the future development of virtual digital human, Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry of Broadcom Consulting, said, "Digital human is one of the landmark achievements of bank digitization, but the current application is not mature enough, and its intelligence needs to be strengthened; in addition, the application of digital human In the field of video and other aspects, it can effectively make up for the shortage of labor, and this aspect is worthy of reference and promotion by various institutions.”
Our reporter Li Bing trainee reporter Yu Junyi
(Editor in charge: Jiang Ninglu)
