Over five decades since the introduction of the ATM, Canada’s largest bank is rolling out a new type of robot banker.
What happened: RBC is partnering with leading Canadian AI startup Cohere to develop a proprietary generative AI platform for RBC employees to complete tasks more efficiently. The platform will be built using Cohere’s new North workspace, which uses AI agents.
Why it matters: The link-up is the first of its kind between a Canadian bank and an AI company. It stands to be a crucial test to see if AI platforms can boost productivity levels like they promise to, and if they can do so without coming at the expense of customer privacy.
- AI testing at banks has stayed in the realm of niche internal tasks because of huge security risks, but this platform promotes safety by keeping all data within RBC’s internal systems.
- Per Cohere testing, North can complete tasks requiring company knowledge five times faster. Fingers crossed this translates to the extinction of endless bank lines.
Zoom out: Of the big Canadian banks, RBC has positioned itself well for the AI revolution. Since 2016, it’s been building up a massive in-house GPU farm to power its AI ambitions, helping it routinely place third in a ranking of AI maturity among major global lenders.—QH