CommBank pulls back the curtain on AI, with CX and personalisation at its core

CommBank is positioning AI as a core customer experience engine, using personalisation, generative AI and automation to transform frontline service and engagement.

In a newly released enterprise-wide AI report, the bank outlines how more than a decade of AI investment is now translating into practical CX outcomes across retail and business banking - from faster frontline assistance to hyper-personalised offers and real-time scam protection.

CommBank CEO Matt Comyn said technology remains a key enabler of the bank’s strategy, with AI opening new pathways to improve how customers experience the organisation.

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“Technology is a great enabler of our strategic priorities and AI offers new ways to enhance customer experience, strengthen trust and help our people deliver better outcomes for customers,” Comyn said.

At the centre of CommBank’s personalisation stack is its machine-learning Customer Engagement Engine (CEE), first deployed in 2015, which helps the bank interpret customer behaviour and deliver more relevant, timely and tailored experiences across channels.

One of the most visible outputs is Benefits Finder, a free feature in the CommBank app and NetBank that has helped personal and business customers access more than 400 rebates since 2019, spanning everything from energy support to wage subsidies.

Generative AI is now extending that CX layer into frontline operations.

The bank's internal AI tool, Compass AI, delivers answers from the bank’s business banking knowledge base three times faster than traditional methods and has been used to answer more than 500,000 frontline questions since July 2024. This is enabling staff to spend more time on higher-value customer conversations rather than searching for information.

Executive general manager and report lead Alex Matthews said AI is being deployed where it can tangibly improve customer outcomes.

“Banking technology has evolved significantly in the past 30 years and we are using AI to help reduce scams and fraud, protect against phishing and deliver more tailored and relevant experiences for our customers,” Matthews said.

Fraud and scam prevention remains one of CommBank’s largest AI-enabled CX investments.

In FY25, the bank invested more than $900 million to help protect customers from scams, cyber threats and financial crime. AI models now analyse more than 20 million payments on average each day and trigger around 40,000 proactive warning alerts daily via the CommBank app.

The bank said these capabilities contributed to a reduction in customer fraud losses of more than 20% in the first half of FY26 compared to the first half of FY25.

CommBank is also using AI to detect abusive language in transaction descriptions and surface potential harm earlier, extending AI’s role beyond efficiency into customer wellbeing and safety.

Governance and trust sit alongside CX as foundational pillars of CommBank’s AI program. The bank operates a dedicated AI governance forum overseeing higher-risk use cases and applies a Group AI Policy built around fairness, transparency, privacy and data protection, reliability and security, accountability and environmental and social considerations.

More than 27,600 employees have now participated in CommBank’s internal AI learning series, as the bank focuses on building confidence and capability alongside deployment.