The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch an initiative allowing employees to safely develop and test AI solutions.

The AI Factory will enable the bank to accelerate its adoption of generative AI (genAI) by providing the computing power required to train AI large language models (LLMs) at faster speeds.

CommBank said the move will allow it to provide personalised and contextualised experiences for its customers and communities at scale.

The AI Factory will use services from AWS including Amazon SageMaker, a machine learning (ML) managed service, and Amazon EC2 P5 Instances for deep learning and high performance computing applications.

CommBank claims it is the first local AWS customer to leverage this service in the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) region.

Commenting on the news CommBank’s chief data and analytics officer, Dr Andrew McMullan, said that AI has been a focus for the company for a number of years and genAI has the potential to simplify the core banking operational processes.

“The technology is advancing quickly, and we need the right infrastructure in place to support our strategic goal of building tomorrow’s bank today for the benefit of our customers,” he added. “The AI Factory will ensure that we are properly set-up to leverage this emerging technology effectively -we find that when AI-powered experiences drive demonstrably better outcomes for customers, this builds trust, confidence, and ultimately engagement.”

Last month, CommBank announced the launch of a microlearning series designed to teach employees about AI topics including genAI and deep learning. The bank said move will support better customer experience and allow around 43,000 employees to gain skills for their required roles.

---