First mobile bank in France with a customer relationship model based on AI technology

Orange, the leading French telecom operator, has been proposing since November 2017 a disruptive banking model with Orange Bank which has today reached nearly 100,000 customers.

“Orange Bank has entered the banking market with an innovative, new offer. Djingo powered by Watson is one of the bank’s innovations. The virtual advisor brings our customers a unique experience allowing them to interact with their bank when and where they want,” said André Coisne, CEO of Orange Bank.

For the French, mobile banking is becoming the preferred mode of interaction with their bank. Today, nearly two out of three (63%) French people have downloaded their bank’s app on their mobile, and almost half (47%) consult their app at least once a week*.

Orange Bank offers a new quality of customer services through a virtual advisor called “Djingo”, which is powered by IBM Watson (NYSE: IBM) delivered through IBM Services. Djingo answers customers’ questions in natural language and model to perform actions such as blocking a card in case of loss, or unblocking it.

Available 24/7, Djingo is the first point of contact for customers and prospects with the bank. Every week, almost 24,000 conversations are performed by Djingo. Nearly 20% of these conversations take place outside traditional working hours, to meet strong demand for a continuous service.

For priority areas of service identified by the bank as requiring a human relation, such as questioning of a bank payment, Djingo hands over the discussion with the customer to an expert from the Customer Relationship Center who will be able to continue the conversation by accessing the customer’s file and the history of the conversation with the virtual advisor.

The exchanges are constantly analyzed by a team of Orange Bank and IBM experts in order to improve the knowledge of the virtual advisor. Furthermore, its knowledge-base is continually enhanced with information on future products and services offered by the bank.

“Based on a continuous learning system, Djingo powered by Watson understands more than 85% of questions asked in natural language, which is already an excellent level of understanding,” said Jean-Philippe Desbiolles, Vice President IBM Cognitive Solutions France.

Orange Bank’s new relationship model relies on IBM Watson and CRM Salesforce to create a fluent interaction regardless of the channel used. This allows for an omnichannel management approach.

Orange Bank accesses Watson services through the IBM Cloud, providing the bank with high-scalability and agility.

* “Services numériques dans la banque : Autonomie Client & Digital Care”, SAB / CGI study by Next Content, carried out online in December 2017 with 1,021 people, representative of the French population connected to the Internet (based on age, sex and CSP criteria).