TORONTO, Nov. 18, 2020 /CNW/ - Scotiabank today announced the use of a new Global AI Platform that provides customers with intelligent and personalized financial advice. The platform is enabling the Bank to provide fast, relevant advice by anticipating and understanding customers' needs.

"A key part of Scotiabank's AI strategy has been to build a strong talent pool of data scientists and data engineers, fully integrating them with business analytics professionals who have deep banking knowledge," said Phil Thomas, EVP Customer Insights, Data and Analytics, Scotiabank. "To enable our winning teams to deliver financially impactful AI initiatives, we've created a global modern analytics platform that is flexible, resilient and integrated into our businesses." 

Over the last 10 months the Bank has been leveraging the new platform to deliver faster insights and better advice to its global customers.  The platform is being used to operationalize several customer models into its retail banking businesses across the Americas.  These AI models have been a central piece of the Bank's core retail banking programs focused on customer engagement, including deepening relationships through targeted and relevant offers. With a focus on providing quality advice for customers, the platform's compute power enables the fast delivery of insights, ultimately providing better data to support customers in their financial goals. The platform has also been designed to be used in all business lines across the enterprise.

"This global pandemic has reinforced the importance of delivering customized financial advice that speaks to our customers' unique business and household situations," said Dan Rees, Group Head, Canadian Banking for Scotiabank. "Scotiabank's investments in technology have allowed us to continue to provide the valued advice and support our customers have told us they're receiving from us, as a leading bank in customer satisfaction."

"Scotiabank has been strategically integrating AI, data and analytics directly into the business across the Americas," said Nacho Deschamps, Group Head, International Banking & Digital Transformation, Scotiabank. "The Bank's investment in the new Global AI Platform will enable us to continually drive transformation at a rapid pace with data-driven solutions that provide a better understanding of our customers."

Scotiabank intends to evolve the platform to seamlessly deploy analytics applications, not just to on-premise hardware but also in cloud-based environments.  This will enable the platform to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for analytics computations.  Additionally, it makes available as much GPU compute as needed to enable complex AI tasks.

About the Global Artificial Intelligence Platform
Designed for analytics and AI-based development and production, The Global AI Platform is based on Kubernetes, an open-source system for automating deployment and management of applications.  The Bank has fully modernized its technology stack, utilizing high-performance object storage and distributed workload management solutions, to enable advanced analytics tools and deployments. Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) patterns have been established to increase the speed, stability and success rate of analytics application deployments. In the Bank's operations in Colombia, analytics application deployments increased by 5X in model iterations, 8X increase in processing frequency and were 10X faster due to automated processes. Key to the platform has been disciplined MLOps practices, enabling a robust development, deployment and production process.   These are the key enablers that data scientists and data engineers need, and want, to drive impactful financial results.

About Advice+
The success of our customers is at the heart of our business at Scotiabank. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Scotiabank has helped more than 375,000 customers with assistance programs and provided thousands of customers with advice to help them navigate through challenging times. Advice+ is championing our customers' financial goals with a tailored plan, plus the resources and education, and professional support that will help them stay on track. Canadians can visit the new ScotiaAdvice+ Centre or contact a Scotiabank advisor today to discover the power of a simple conversation.

Innovation Leadership
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Scotiabank has helped more than 375,000 customers receive loan assistance plans and provided thousands of customers with advice to help them navigate through challenging times. Enabled by the Bank's strong data and analytics capabilities, the Bank's rapid response to COVID-19 is a key reason why Scotiabank was named the Best Bank in North America for Innovation in Digital Banking for 2020 by The Banker magazine, a Financial Times publication.

About Scotiabank     
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.2 trillion (as at July 31, 2020), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit and follow us on Twitter @ScotiabankViews.

SOURCE Scotiabank