From Theory to Practice: Real-World AI Use Cases in Lending and Credit
Lasse Mäkelä (Multitude), Petri Nikkilä (Openbank & Santander), Darko Popovic (Multitude) & Mart Täänagu (Swedbank Estonia)
Multitude Group equips all 800 employees with secure GPT AI assistants, boosting efficiency with seven daily uses per employee and generating 30% of IT code via GitHub Copilot. AI-driven customer service resolves 80% of queries autonomously, featuring high satisfaction scores and real-time multilingual support. Compliance teams deploy AI for financial crime detection and campaign approval, reducing manual workload. Spacebank Baltics employs internal AI chat for regulatory queries and is developing AI tools for corporate credit decisions, emphasizing the need to overcome legacy data challenges and design customer journeys to reduce unnecessary support contacts.
"I’ve learned that we tend to overestimate what we can do with AI today, but highly underestimate what we can achieve with AI in just one year."
Summary
- Multitude equips all employees with GPT assistants, achieving 7 uses/day on average, targeting 15, boosting efficiency for 86% of users. - AI generates 30% of company code, enhancing IT development efficiency, and handles 80% of customer queries with high satisfaction scores. - AI aids compliance by automating risk assessments and anti-financial crime checks, reducing manual work and speeding up processes. - Baltic bank uses internal GPT-like tools for regulations, compliance, and credit decisions, focusing on augmenting human tasks and learning. - Legacy systems and outdated customer journeys impede AI benefits; better design and AI integration can improve customer experience and operational speed.
Article
Banking's AI revolution moves from theory to everyday practice
Financial institutions share real-world successes at Nordic Fintech Summit
The gap between AI hype and practical implementation is closing rapidly in the financial services sector, as demonstrated by banking executives at the Nordic Fintech Summit. On Wednesday, 14th of May 2025, leaders from Multitude, Swedbank Estonia and other financial institutions shared how artificial intelligence has already transformed their operations, customer service and compliance functions.
Empowering employees with AI assistance
"Everyone is talking about AI today. Even in the store I saw an energy drink labeled as AI empowered. So is it a buzzword or reality? Today we focus on practical cases and real benefits of AI adoption," said Darko Popovic from Multitude Group, who leads AI adoption at the company.
Popovic revealed that Multitude has equipped all 800 employees with secure GPT AI assistants, investing over 4,000 training hours in AI reskilling. The result has been dramatic: employees use these assistants an average of seven times daily, with 86% reporting improved efficiency.
"We decided to equip every employee with a GPT assistant to access AI advisory, insights, and analysis. On average, employees use the AI assistant seven times per day aiming for 15 times. Efficiency gains are already proven," Popovic explained.
The company's IT department has seen particular benefits, with 30% of code now generated through GitHub Copilot, significantly easing the burden of finding and retaining expensive developer talent.
Transforming customer service interactions
Perhaps the most impressive implementation shared was in customer service, where AI assistants are now handling 80% of customer queries without human intervention, while maintaining a 93% customer satisfaction rating.
"Our AI assistants resolve 80% of customer queries without human intervention, achieving 93% customer satisfaction and reducing customer effort with seamless, few-click solutions," said Popovic.
The AI system can predict customer inquiries before they're asked and offer solutions with minimal clicks. For instance, rather than asking generic questions, the system might proactively ask: "Hey John, your payment is about three days to due date. Are you here to make the payment?" The company has also implemented AI translations, allowing offshore customer service teams to communicate with customers in their native languages in real-time.
"AI is helping customer service to be scalable, cost-efficient, and focus more on value-based activities, while also supporting language translation instantly to serve diverse customer bases," Popovic noted.
Streamlining compliance and fighting financial crime
In the highly regulated banking sector, compliance functions are seeing substantial AI benefits. Multitude has developed custom AI assistants that help ensure regulatory compliance and fight financial crime through automated media scanning and risk evaluation of potential clients.
Meanwhile, Mart Täänagu from Swedbank Estonia (referred to as "Spacebank Baltics" during the talk) shared that their internal AI chat system received two million queries last month from employees seeking guidance on regulations and compliance matters.
"Since last year, we have integrated an IRB chat and compliance agent," Täänagu explained, describing how the tools help validate whether regulatory documents meet European Central Bank requirements, reducing dependence on external consultants while building internal expertise.
Overcoming legacy system challenges
The panel discussion revealed that legacy systems remain a significant obstacle to fully realizing AI's potential in established banks. Unlike newer, cloud-based institutions with well-structured data, incumbent banks often struggle with fragmented, poorly organized information that complicates AI model training.
Täänagu acknowledged that Swedbank is currently building separate "band-aids" rather than tackling core legacy system problems directly. The bank is developing a corporate credit decision assistant to help streamline committee reviews, expected to launch mid-year.
The human element remains crucial
Despite the automation successes, speakers emphasized that AI's true potential lies in augmenting human capabilities rather than replacing them entirely.
"AI can help us become more human by automating repetitive tasks, freeing time to handle valuable cases and deepen client relationships. Paradoxically, AI may increase genuine human interaction in banking," one panelist noted.
The executives agreed that well-designed customer journeys should minimize the need for support entirely. As one speaker put it, "if the customer needs to contact support, the customer experience already failed."
As the Nordic Fintech Summit continues through Thursday, 15th of May, the presentations have made clear that AI in banking has moved decisively from theoretical discussion to practical implementation, with measurable benefits already being realized across multiple business functions.
Part of Nordic Fintech Summit