S2:E6

5 Years Kate 🎂: Inside KBC’s AI Playbook

AI
58 min

Host

Kris PeetersKris Peeters

Guest

DBDr. Barak Chizi

What happens when a bank decides that AI and IP are so strategic they must be built in-house - then actually follows through for more than a decade?

In this episode of The Data Playbook, Dr. Barak Chizi, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at KBC Group, joins Kris Peeters to reveal how KBC built one of Europe’s most mature AI organisations and what it took to bring Kate, their AI assistant, to life, and keep her evolving for 5 years.

If you want to understand how to turn AI from experiments into a true competitive advantage, this conversation is your playbook.

🌐 More at www.dataminded.com and subscribe to our channel.

The Foundation of Soft Logic👉 link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-58233-2

Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational👉 www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Decisions/dp/0061353248/

What you'll see

  • ▸Grew from early machine learning to 2,000+ AI use cases in production
  • ▸Developed an AI-driven anti-money laundering platform and commercialised it for other banks
  • ▸Scaled Kate, now celebrating 5 years and upgraded with GPT.
  • ▸Uses the U-model to govern AI safely from idea to production
  • ▸Keeps ROI at the centre of every AI project
  • ▸Stays vendor-independent while still leveraging hyperscaler LLMs
  • ▸Builds diverse, high-calibre AI teams with a rigorous recruitment approach
  • ▸Explores soft logic and modelling customer intent as the next frontier of financial AI

Chapters

  1. 00:00Intro to The Data Playbook & today's guest
  2. 01:15Barak's backstory: 25 years in AI & high-dimensional data
  3. 03:02What a CDAO does at KBC & enabling 24/7 AI-assisted service
  4. 04:55Towards continuous, machine-supported customer journeys
  5. 06:37The U-Model: KBC's framework for data & AI projects
  6. 08:35Flagship AI products, finite project lifecycle & retraining
  7. 10:07Prioritising AI use cases across 5 countries
  8. 12:31ROI mindset, conservative risk culture & data as an asset
  9. 14:21Why KBC keeps AI in-house & limits external consultants
  10. 18:17Beyond data warehouses: from reporting to prediction
  11. 22:21AI-driven AML platform & the creation of SKY
  12. 25:30Patents, AI IP and KBC's competitive positioning
  13. 27:25Generative AI at KBC since 2018 & early transformer experiments
  14. 29:11Pragmatic tech choices: LLMs vs ML vs simple automation
  15. 31:42Avoiding GenAI hype and focusing on customer value
  16. 33:03Why KBC built Kate: 24/7 banking & impatient customers
  17. 35:28From FAQ bot to execution engine: Kate's end-to-end capabilities
  18. 37:07Customer reactions, branches vs digital & Kate's 2026 roadmap
  19. 39:24Multi-LLM strategy, vendor independence & design partnerships
  20. 40:44Inside Kate's architecture: NLU, open source & KBC-built layers
  21. 42:37Proactive AI: timing, context and personalised offers
  22. 44:51Soft logic, consciousness & modelling customer intent
  23. 49:19Building a diverse, 24-nationality AI team at KBC
  24. 51:37Recruitment process, tests & how candidates are evaluated
  25. 55:21What KBC looks for in modern data scientists
  26. 57:15Lessons after 10 years at KBC & book recommendation

Tags

KBCAI StrategyGenerative AIAI GovernanceBankingAI ProductData LeadershipThe Data Playbook

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