Commonwealth Bank announces huge changes
Commonwealth Bank announces massive changes that will affect millions of Australians: here’s what you need to know
- Australia’s most used banking app is being overhauled
- The app rolls in stock trading and business accounts
A banking app used by millions of Australians is getting an artificial intelligence upgrade that the company says will improve personalisation.
Commonwealth Bank announced on Wednesday that the CommBank app v5.0 is about to launch and will also integrate stock trading into the platform.
Meg Bonighton, CBA’s Executive General Manager Digital & Customer, said the bank is focusing heavily on its digital platforms as fewer customers visit the branches in person.
“Digital investment is such an important area for us and we want to continue to provide our customers with a lifelong digital experience that is equal to or better than any other digital experience.”
According to the bank’s own figures, the number of users has increased by 50 percent since 2018 and about 7.7 million people have downloaded the app.
Commonwealth Bank is reworking their banking app to include more artificial intelligence
A screenshot of the new app that will be more “personalized” and make it easier to switch between work and personal accounts
They also use the app more often, averaging 36 logins per month – or more than once per day.
Ms Bonighton said that as more people used the app, the bank collected a wealth of data on their customers’ banking behavior
“It’s the insights we get from the app and the conversations we have with customers every day that tell us that the benchmark for a superior digital experience has shifted. Our customers expect more from us.’
One of the biggest changes is adding the Commsec stock trading app to the CommBank app, eliminating the need for users to switch between two apps.
A benefit to the bank is that this will hopefully entice more of their clients to use their stock trading products.
Other changes include a personalized login experience and improved search that puts each customer’s most used features front and center.
Business customers can also seamlessly switch between their business and personal accounts.
About 7.7 million CommBank customers log into the banking app and the number of users has skyrocketed in recent years
Chief executive Matt Comyn said improved technology enabled better connections with customers.
“By leveraging world-leading artificial intelligence and building on the digital investments and advancements we have made over the past few years, we are now able to better understand the needs of our 8.3 million digitally active customers,” he said.
“We absolutely recognize and see tremendous potential to differentiate ourselves further and we think some of the things we’re talking about today will hopefully do just that.”
Addressing concerns about AI, Mr Cormyn said he believes the government is looking closely at perhaps regulating the technology.
“It’s currently a topic of conversation, I think, at the highest level in many countries about how to think about it, both for companies, but also realistically how it can be used and abused by bad actors.”
“It’s definitely a huge focus for us. It’s with both government and regulators – when you see these kinds of losses in Australian households (due to scams) exceed $3 billion, it’s just not good enough.”
The new app will be available from next month.