The Financial Ombudsman is aiming to build up its in-house capability to develop intelligent automation (IA) processes and harness machine learning.
It has indicated that it regards the technologies as a key element of its digital plans, with the scope to improve operational efficiency and its customer experience.
The ombudsman, which settles complaints between consumers and businesses in the financial services sector, said it wants to establish an IA capability with a key focus on applying machine learning.
It has published a market notice for a digital services partner for a six-month programme in the effort.
The organisation highlighted the importance of providing answers to complaints in a timely fashion and that it sees reducing the time spent on manual processes as a crucial step.
It has developed a proof of concept – with the heads of digital technology and business applications working closely together – and a technical architecture and tools to build the capability, and is now aiming to establish the organisational capacity.
This will involve the delivery of a scalable and secure production IA architecture with established designs, defining the operating model, deploying a number of proof concepts using machine learning within IA, and working with business units to embed the solutions. There are also plans to develop professional accreditation for ongoing support and work out the support and maintenance model.
Image from iStock, Nicoelnino
