News
CEO Southeast Asia’s top bank DBS says AI adoption already paying off
Tan Su Shan, deputy chief executive officer and managing director of institutional banking at DBS Group Holdings Ltd., speaks during a news conference in Singapore, on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. DBS picked Tan Su Shan as deputy to Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta, setting the stage for her to eventually become the first woman to lead Southeast Asia’s largest bank. Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SINGAPORE – Amid fears of an artificial intelligence bubble, much has been made of recent reports suggesting that AI has yet to generate returns for companies investing billions into adopting the tech.
But that’s not what the chief executive of Southeast Asia’s largest bank is seeing — she says her firm is already reaping the rewards of its AI initiatives, and it’s only just the beginning.
“It’s not hope. It’s now. It’s already happening. And it will get even better,” DBS CEO Tan Su Shan told CNBC on the sidelines of Singapore Fintech Week, when asked about the promise of AI adoption.
DBS has been working to implement artificial intelligence across its bank for over a decade, which helped prepare its internal data analytics for recent waves of generative and agentic AI.
Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence that relies on data to proactively make independent decisions, plan and execute tasks autonomously, with minimal human oversight.
Tan expects AI adoption to bring DBS an overall revenue bump of more than 1 billion Singapore dollars (about $768 million) this year, compared to SG$750 million in 2024. That assessment is based on about 370 AI use cases powered by over 1,500 models throughout its business.
“The proliferation of generative AI has been transformative for us,” Tan said, adding that the company was experiencing a “snowballing effect” of benefits thanks to machine learning.
A major area in which DBS has applied AI is in its financial services to institutional clients, with AI used to collect and leverage data about clients in order to better contextualize and personalize offerings.
According to Tan, this has resulted in “faster and more resilient” teams. The CEO believes that these uses of AI have contributed to a recent uptick in the bank’s deposit growth as compared to competitors’.
The company also recently launched a newly enhanced AI-powered assistant for corporate clients known as “DBS Joy,” which assists clients with unique corporate banking queries around the clock.
ROI concerns
Despite Tan’s strong convictions about AI, recent evidence suggests that many companies are struggling to turn their AI investments into tangible profits.
MIT released a report in July that found 95% of 300 publicly disclosed AI initiatives, encompassing generative AI investments of $30–$40 billion, had failed to achieve real returns.
However, at least in the banking sector, there are signs that the tides are turning.
While DBS doesn’t differentiate spending in generative AI from other in-house investments, other major banks have recently offered this comparison.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated in an interview with Bloomberg TV last month that the bank is already breaking even on its approximately $2 billion of annual investments in AI adoption. That represents “just the tip of the iceberg,” he added.
Those expectations are shared by DBS, which plans to continue to accelerate its AI development to become an AI-powered bank.
The ultimate goal, according to Tan, is for its generative AI to develop into a trusted financial advisor for clients, including retail users who are expected to interact with personalized AI agents through the DBS banking app.
The bank already has over 100 AI algorithms that analyze users’ data to provide them with personalized “nudges,” such as alerts on incoming shortfalls, product recommendations, and other insights.
Continued AI investments
While DBS may already be reaping rewards from its AI adoption, Tan acknowledged that it will require continued investments, not only in capital, but in the time needed to reskill employees.
The company has launched several AI reskilling initiatives across departments this year and has even deployed a generative AI-powered coaching tool to support these efforts.
This will help the company automate mundane work and refocus its staff on building and maintaining human-to-human relationships with customers, rather than reducing headcount, Tan said.
“We’re not freezing hiring, but it does mean reskilling. And that’s a journey. It’s a never-ending journey … a constant evolution.”
