By
Tolu Ajiboye
October 20th, 2023
Currently, the Digital Labs arm of the company is working on utilizing LLMs for analyzing customers’ feedback and inquiries.
American Express (NYSE: AXP) has joined the new wave of companies adopting AI to scale their businesses. The financial services corporation is planning to deploy AI in validating transactions and approving lines of credit. It also wants to use the technology to upgrade its consumers’ experiences by analyzing customer sentiments and predicting their finances. Before the AI buzz, American Express had been consistently embracing new technologies, which has helped the company to remain relevant since it was founded in 1850.
According to a VentureBeat report, American Express is currently not looking to unveil its own large language model (LLM). This is despite the financial services corporation’s desire to develop its business by embracing Artificial Intelligence. The Senior vice president of American Express Digital Labs, which is a division of AmEx, Luke Gebb, said confirmed the decision by saying:
“Our hypothesis at the moment is that we would be better suited using LLMs through partnerships. I don’t see us spinning up our own LLM from scratch.”
Notably, American Express Digital Labs is a forerunner in using AI for financial services. The group, consisting of 100 tech experts worldwide, was involved with integrating AI digital assistant Mezi. Following the integration, AmEx eventually acquired the company behind Mezi and knitted its technology through some of its services.
American Express Intends to Upscale with AI
While Gebb did not specify the companies American Express could partner with, he mentioned the areas the company intends to upscale with the help of AI. The American company wants to use Artificial Intelligence to speed up transaction approval. This is the process where a credit card issuer confirms that charges were made by a customer. Gebb noted that AmEx would use AI “for predicting how our customers are going to do over time, and approving cards and lines of credits. ”Part of the plan also includes using large language models to parse customer interaction data to analyze sentiment.
The VP of product development for emerging platforms and AI at AmEx Digital Labs, Laura Grant, spoke on the new move towards AI. The VP said the team looks at the technology on how it will impact its customers. Currently, the Digital Labs arm of the company is working on utilizing LLMs for analyzing customers’ feedback and inquiries. This would help to address questions and reactions on the company’s existing customer service portals and social media. Hence, the company will be able to provide appropriate and valuable responses. Furthermore, Grant added that American Digital Labs seeks help dealing with new technologies, especially AI. The vice president said the company aims to help its products be more personalized to each customer, proactive, and predictive.
