{"id":212,"date":"2025-07-31T04:54:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/?p=212"},"modified":"2025-07-31T21:59:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:59:54","slug":"ai-based-chat-bots-its-not-too-late-to-implement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/2025\/07\/31\/ai-based-chat-bots-its-not-too-late-to-implement\/","title":{"rendered":"Ai based chat bots: it’s not too late…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ACS’s David Braue<\/strong>, writing in the InformationAge publication explored the Commonwealth Bank’s latest Ai move that has reduce staffing level dramatically this month. He writes…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies love them, customers tolerate them, and generative AI (genAI) is making them useful \u2013 but as dozens of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) customer service staff are learning, it\u2019s clear the worst fears about chatbots were true all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 45 Direct Banking workers have been made redundant<\/a> since an AI chatbot started handling inbound customer enquiries in June, the bank has confirmed, with another 45 Customer Messaging Specialist staff \u2013 the other side of your online chats \u2013 set to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports suggest the AI chatbots have diverted 2,000 calls per week from the bank\u2019s contact centres, with a CBA spokesperson telling Information Age<\/em> that \u201cour investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy automating simple queries,\u201d they added, \u201cour teams can focus on more complex customer queries that need empathy and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff movement is inevitable during such changes as \u201csome roles and work can change\u201d, the spokesperson said, as executives \u201creview the skills we need and how we\u2019re organised to deliver the best customer experiences and outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on individual situations, many of our people have taken up the upskilling and reskilling pathways made available for them,\u201d they said, adding that the bank was committed to \u201csupport affected employees with care, dignity, and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) isn\u2019t buying CBA\u2019s reassurances, with national secretary Julia Angrisano arguing<\/a> that \u201cworkers want a tech-savvy bank, but they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workers \u201cwant to be supported into better jobs that leverage AI,\u201d she said, \u201cyet rather than invest in its people, CBA are simply discarding Australians.\u2026 [CEO Matt Comyn\u2019s] carefully curated commitment to policy reform just looks like hollow PR.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI has some hard truths for workers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Confirmation of the cuts comes just months after an Australian Financial Review<\/em> report<\/a> that last September said the bank was testing a genAI chatbot, called Hey CommBank, that would eventually replace many of the bank\u2019s 2,400 contact centre staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about those reports at the company\u2019s 2024 annual general meeting<\/a> the next month, Comyn dismissed the report as \u201cperhaps\u2026 a little ahead of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very focused on being able to improve the customer experience,\u201d he said, suggesting AI chatbots might be most useful in managing surges in customer enquiries during a mass fraud or other \u201ctimes of particular concern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhilst there is certainly potential with AI,\u201d he said, \u201cit will take some time before we\u2019ll be confident that we can control for all the risks, and be able to manage that safely at scale\u2026. It\u2019s an important policy area and an area that we are engaging with our regulators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a human cost to this,\u201d Angrisano said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just replace frontline jobs with a voice bot and expect the same service for customers.\u201d [Excite Editor: melding being the solution!]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefits are so good that AI adopters are hastening the transition.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So need help developing an ai base chatbot for external customers or internal staff to answer questions, divert resrouces to more valable work in your business – Excite Labs is here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACS’s David Braue, writing in the InformationAge publication explored the Commonwealth Bank’s latest Ai move that has reduce staffing level dramatically this month. He writes… Companies love them, customers tolerate them, and generative AI (genAI) is making them useful \u2013 but as dozens of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) customer service staff are learning, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solutions-for-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excitelabs.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}