NatWest has launched a generative AI assistant named Cora+ that it developed in partnership with IBM. 

Cora+ will be unveiled during London Tech Week (10-14 June) and is an update to NatWest’s existing online chat assistant Cora. 

The previous version of Cora, without AI, already helped NatWest customers with over 10 million online banking queries in 2023. 

NatWest stated that it hoped the addition of generative AI to Cora will help provide customers with a more personalised and intuitive experience. 

Cora+ will first be deployed on a 12-week pilot to recognise and address any potential faults. 

After this pilot, Cora+ will be deployed fully for all NatWest online banking customers. 

Using machine learning, NatWest stated that Cora+ will have a more extensive knowledge base than the existing version of Cora, helping online banking users address a wider range of problems than before. 

NatWest Group’s chief digital information officer, Wendy Redshaw, stated that NatWest remained committed to digital transformation for its customer experience. 

“The introduction of Cora+ is a major step forward in how customers interact with NatWest,” she said. 

“By collaborating with IBM, we have been able to build on Cora’s success and leverage the latest innovations in AI, and we’re proud to be one of the first banks in the UK to do this,” stated Redshaw. 

Redshaw also commented that Cora+ would help provide NatWest customers with a more “human” experience during their first point of contact for help. 

By 2030, research and analysis company GlobalData forecast the total AI market to be worth over $1,037bn, achieving a CAGR of 39% from 2023. 

In its executive briefing on AI, GlobalData reported that generative AI would be the fastest growing segment of AI technology.