Local banking executive Frederick Pragnell is encouraging increased use of data and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve business processes, pointing out that those who refuse to leverage AI will be left at a disadvantage.

Pragnell, addressing the recent UTech General Management Students’ Conference 2024, said businesses’ ability to analyse and interpret data has become crucial to making strategic decisions that can drive growth in a constantly evolving landscape.

“Modern businesses are running on data because it helps organisations to better understand
their customers [experiences], streamline operations, as well as improve products, marketing
and communication. The everyday business and social environments are changing at the hands
of technology and data,” said the chief process improvement and innovation officer at JN Bank.

“It is important that we all understand, especially you who will be going into the industry very soon, what it means to manage data. That is the most valuable thing that businesses can grapple with now- the ability to analyse and to make decisions through the use of data.”

He said more businesses, such as JN Bank, are using AI to gather and analyse data quickly, to make faster and better-informed decisions that drive efficiency and create better customer experiences.

By collecting data from processes, Pragnell said businesses are able to assess whether the processes work effectively. In order to become a data-driven organisation, he said they must use that data to inform decisions.

“It used to take 48 hours to onboard into JN Bank. A decision was taken to leverage technology to allow you to onboard in less than an hour. That’s a data-driven decision and that’s the way businesses should run,” he highlighted. JN uses AI to remove manual and repetitive tasks and because of this, we have the opportunity to handle higher volumes of transactions and deliver faster, more accurate services to you.”

He added that AI is better at tracing patterns than humans, and simplifies processes through natural language processing, robotics, machine learning, expert systems and computer vision.

• Natural Language Processing – This is one aspect of AI that Jamaicans have been
  using for some time, such as chatbots that have been integrated into customer service
  systems that are providing immediate and 24/7 assistance to customers.
• Robotics – “Our ATMs are also driven by robotics, so you can conduct various services
  at our ATMs- not only depositing and withdrawing cash. Just this month, for instance, JN
  Bank updated its smart ATMs to facilitate loan payments, which means if you have a loan
  with us, you don’t have to go into a branch to make payments. You can simply go to one of
  our smart ATMs to make your payment. This is AI at work, and by leveraging our smart
  ATMs for this service, we can optimise our physical space and offer more convenience to our
  loan customers and our staff members. This change optimizes the experience for everyone
  and, of course, the data it will generate will help inform future decisions to further improve
  experiences. Data tells us where we need to go as a financial institution,” he pointed out.

• Machine Learning – Along with expert systems, these are additional arms of AI which the JN Group is also leveraging to automate and enhance processes like credit scoring. “We’ve integrated the rules of our processes into our credit process, and our customers are benefiting now from more seamless and faster decisions. Instead of weeks, they can know almost instantly if they have been approved for an unsecured loan and it takes hours – not weeks- for the loan to be disbursed,” said Pragnell.
• Computer imaging – This is another aspect of AI, Pragnell noted, that is used for things such as document scanning and face recognition to improve onboarding processes. He noted that the ONE JN Passport application developed for the JN Financial Group is one area this is being used for.

“With the ONE JN Passport, you’ll be able to access all JN financial services in one place2, without the need to provide the same basic information, such as TRN and ID, to our companies every time you want to access a new product- whether it be from JN Bank, JN Life or JN Fund Managers or other financial services offered by companies within the financial group,” he stated.

Persons will be able to open accounts, purchase insurance, and access loans. The app is currently available and allows persons to open accounts and access unsecured loans in a few hours.

Another benefit of AI, he pointed out, is better risk management and mitigation through improved tracking and prediction and detecting Know Your Customer shortfalls and cyber threats.

Pragnell told students to disregard ethical concerns about AI replacing humans in the workforce, encouraging them to instead see it as an opportunity.

“Borrowing a statement from someone who I work with every day: Gillian Jackson, she leads
our data analytics practice at JN. ‘It’s people who aren’t using AI who will be at a disadvantage
in the future’, and the same goes for businesses and technology,” he warned.

“Stop seeing yourself as subject matter specialists in a process. Know about AI, know about the
trends around it, the things that it is affecting, the industries that are being impacted. Seeing yourself less as someone who is carrying out a process but more as someone who considers the process as a whole and has value to add to it, you will be able to use AI to your advantage,” he advised.