Hyperautomation of Processes at PKO Bank Polski Gains Momentum - 220 Million Tasks Completed by Robots
PKO Bank Polski has already automated 270 business processes. In a little over a year, robots have completed 100 million tasks in the bank, doubling the pace of automation compared to previous years. The bank has used robots to serve customers faster and more efficiently, including within the framework of the holiday credit program, as well as to create and offer new products and services.
In May of this year, the total number of automated tasks at PKO Bank Polski exceeded 220 million in 270 processes, marking significant acceleration in the use of RPA technology. Previously, from 2019 to 2021, the bank automated 185 processes with 100 million completed tasks. PKO Bank Polski increasingly employs automation for repetitive and large-scale processes to better meet the changing needs of customers. By combining low code, no code, big data, and artificial intelligence, more complex tasks are now subject to automation.
RPA technology allows us to perform large-scale repetitive tasks in a faster and easier way, so we can better meet the needs of our customers. Robotics improves customer service and experiences, as well as enhances competitiveness. It enables us to provide more efficient service when specific activities must occur within a certain timeframe. It also increases work efficiency and significantly reduces costs. Hyperautomation also frees up human resources, allowing our employees to tackle more creative and demanding tasks. There is currently no new back-office process in the bank that has not been examined for automation potential
- says Arkadiusz Szot, Director of the Hyperautomation Process Department, International Operations, and Banking Area at PKO Bank Polski.
In a year, PKO Bank Polski doubled the tasks of "digital employees" and introduced new hyperautomation process solutions. Robots supported the bank in tasks related to the implementation of holiday credit programs. Their role was to minimize manual actions required to suspend mortgage loans and subsequently reinstate loan parameters after the suspension period. At the beginning of May this year, the total volume of tasks related to this process exceeded 2 million. The bank also uses hyperautomation to improve communication with intermediaries, faster data verification, support for sales processes, contract preparation and registration, data updates, monitoring, and account closures.
Intelligent Automation
PKO Bank Polski is increasingly utilizing intelligent automation, which combines RPA technology with a range of innovative solutions that constitute hyperautomation processes. These include Low and No Code platforms used for rapid process building with automation elements, as well as intelligent OCR, which recognizes and reads handwritten text on documents and converts it into digital format. The bank also uses intelligent BPM/Workflow platforms that allow for flexible process design and information flow modeling, where employees no longer have to manually transfer data from one system to another. This creates a completely new level of efficiency, accuracy, and speed in daily operations. It facilitates responding to business changes and can even predict them.
So far, when handling complaint processes, RPA itself was able to inform customers about accepted complaints, collect data from them, or perform transactions. In combination with AI, nearly complete automation of complaint resolution is now possible - the system understands the nature of the complaint and can address it. In April this year, the bank launched the Robotics Academy for employees to enable autonomous automation of simpler tasks performed at specific workstations through education and the provision of codeless tools.
Robots are to be the hands and eyes of artificial intelligence. By combining these, we want to be even more efficient. The appropriately chosen machine learning model will automatically check data and perform specific tasks, such as product monitoring. It is largely self-sufficient, as the operation becomes autonomous, with the entire process only supervised by employees. The flexibility of intelligent automation contributes to the scalability of processes, making it easy to expand automation to new areas. We are also developing solutions using low code, no code, and educating employees to enable the automation of simpler tasks performed at specific workstations - adds Arkadiusz Szot, Director of the Hyperautomation Process Department, International Operations, and Banking Area at PKO Bank Polski.
All of these actions are carried out in accordance with the DevOps culture and through close collaboration between IT and business, as part of agile methodologies. This approach allows the bank to constantly improve the quality and efficiency of the tools it builds.
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PKO Bank Polski is the undisputed leader of the Polish banking sector, with the value of its assets amounting to PLN 461 billion. In the first half of 2023, the bank generated over PLN 2 billion net profit. The company serves 11.8 million customers. It is the basic provider of financial services for all customer segments, achieving the highest shares in the market of deposits, loans and in the market of private investment funds. Thanks to the development of digital tools, including the IKO application, which has been activated by customers over 7.6 million times, PKO Bank Polski is the most mobile bank in Poland.