Bangkok Bank launches advanced Thai conversational AI engine the first in-house solution built by a Thai bank
The engine is a collaboration between Bangkok Bank’s Innohub and Singapore fintech Pand.ai
Bangkok Bank announced the launch of the first in-house built advanced Thai conversational AI engine catering to the mobile-first trend in the country.
The conversational AI engine, called TT01, is a joint collaboration between BBL’s innovation arm, Innohub, and Singapore-based fintech start-up Pand.ai. The development began earlier this year and the engine was fully completed in October. The solution will be available to clients of Pand.ai and BBL will use this as a digital sales assistant on LINE for their sales and relationship managers, scheduled to launch in Q1 2021.
This adds to Pand.ai’s extensive list of languages available on its proprietary developed Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine, upon the likes of English, Chinese, Bahasa Malaysia, and Bahasa Indonesia. It currently serves Global Fortune 500 companies across 5 countries in the region, having big name clients such as Schroders, Tokio Marine Life Singapore, and Allianz. This solution will enable their clients to offer a comprehensive and localized conversational AI experience to consumers across the region.
“We are excited about TT01, which we believe to be the first in-house built advanced Thai conversational AI engine that works. According to multiple BBL’s internal tests, TT01 has achieved a best accuracy rate of more than 96%. Thai is a complicated language and has long been neglected by the global data science community, so we are proud to be able to finally build this engine with Pand.ai, and we hope this will lead to more interest in Thai conversational AI in the region,” said Dr. Pao Sriprasertsuk, Vice President, Innovation Department Manager
In addition to its high accuracy, TT01 is trained to process mixed-use language in Thai and English, as well as emoticons, both of which are commonly used in daily text-based communications. Commenting on this approach, Chuang Shin Wee, founder and CEO of Pand.ai said “We wanted to build a Thai conversational AI engine for everyone. Therefore, it must be able to process utterances that reflect how ordinary people communicate in their daily lives. Through our first partnership with BBL, we have accomplished just that.”
Pand.ai is an alumni of the Bangkok Bank Innohub Season 2 global accelerator program in 2019 and the launch of TT01 comes shortly after the Pre-Series A funding by Bualuang Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of BBL. Mr. Krit Phanratanamala, the Managing Director of Bualuang Ventures has said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of the joint collaboration and firmly believe that this solution will help enhance the conversational AI experience for customers at home and abroad.”