(Reuters) – Commonwealth Bank of Australia said on Monday it acquired a minority stake in a Silicon Valley-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm, H2O.ai Inc, in a bid to provide smarter and personalised products to its customer base.
CBA, Australia’s biggest lender, said it would partner to use H2O.ai’s cloud-based machine learning platform across its operations to develop AI-based products, giving it a lead against its rivals in designing smart financial products.
“We see broad application for AI and machine learning technology right across our business – in operational processes, protecting customers from fraud, lending decisions, and risk management,” CBA Chief Executive Matt Comyn said.
The lender did not disclose the stake it had acquired in the artificial intelligence firm.
Last week, CBA said it would offer a platform for retail customers to trade cryptocurrencies, becoming the country’s first main-street bank to do so, as it looks to match offerings from rival fintech firms.
CBA also leads the banking sector’s entry into the fast-growing Buy Now Pay Later sector in an attempt to fend off competition from Afterpay Ltd.
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney)
