AI, bots, and automation are dominating the headlines when it comes to efficiency gains in banking, but should they? What about decades of banking experience when it comes to the hard credit decisions—should that not be included in the analysis? In this session, speakers uncovered areas in the commercial and small business lending workflow where bots and bankers battle it out.

1. Mike Horrocks – Baker Hill
Gary Pool – Pinnacle Financial
Bankers Versus Bots:
When and How To Balance
Automation

2. They are here to help

3. They are out to get
our jobs (or worse)

4. Bots by many names
Automation or straight-through processing
• Simple steps that can increase efficiencies at your institution
• Removing redundancy and human error
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Constantly improving results and outcomes in what knowledge is shared
• Complexity and cost are correlated
Cognitive agents
• Where bankers and technology often work together to streamline
• Repetitive and often risky (from a compliance perspective)

5. The challenges
Market
Changes
Operating
Costs
Customer
Expectations
Change
Management
Competitive
Market

6. Industry changes to support bots
• Financial institutions have started hiring
Chief A.I. Officers
• A.I.-powered banking bots are
becoming commonplace
• Estimated that companies will spend
$12.5B on A.I. technology in 2019

7. A simple case study
Volume
Thousands of tax returns
submitted every year for
small business and
commercial
Accuracy
Rekeying of hundreds of
data points from each of
those tax returns
Redundancy
Storage and/or scanning
of each of those
documents requires
another touch point

8. So can we work
together?

9. Confidential & Privileged DocumentConfidential & Privileged Document

10. Automation processes
• Reviewing public information, revenue, and filings to improve
commercial banking marketing efforts
• Reviewing customer data such as DDA balances, business credit
card, revolving/term debt availability and utilization to prioritize
the credit needs of clients and prospects
• Ordering of flood, property, and UCC searches, and appraisals
and/or equipment valuations, etc.
• Reducing manual document review times of tax statements,
and account receivables and payables documents

11. Confidential & Privileged DocumentConfidential & Privileged Document

12. Improving data accuracy
• Using rules-based logic to organize
data into a desired format, with the
resulting file imported into a
spreading system
• Achieving Straight-through
Processing (STP), eliminating
duplicate data entry, and including
validation of critical data elements
• Improving demonstrable data
integrity, reporting accuracy, and
agility

13. Confidential & Privileged DocumentConfidential & Privileged Document

14. Increasing transparency
• Improving process transparency, e.g., accelerated loan closings
and borrower online access to submit credit request
• Increasing collaboration by viewing decision status, and
uploading required documents
• Automating annual review
• Streamlining the entire annual audit process by automatically
reverifying all the data and documents

15. Where are we with bot impact?

16. Where to deploy a digital workforce ?
Use the R3
guidance:
Repetitive
Redundant
Risky
Any task that is performed over and
over again, by one or more person(s)
Where your processes require a person to
review, approve, check, audit, supervise, or
confirm something
Compliance/regulations

17. The benefits of bots
Reduce
Transaction
Time
Increase
Transaction
Reliability
Improve
Security and
Compliance

18. Confidential & Privileged DocumentConfidential & Privileged Document

19. Now what…?
• There is no question of “if” bot innovation
will occur—only how quickly and how
extensively
• Benefits will outweigh tradition or
discomfort with change
• As robots handle the more tedious jobs in
banking, bankers will shift to more value-
added activities that involve personal
interaction, problem solving, and decision-
making

20. Thank you!
Mike.Horrocks@bakerhill.com