In this episode, we dive deep into how NatWest uses generative AI to reshape customer service at scale, with Mark Worden, Strategy & Innovation Lead for Cora at NatWest.
We explore how one of the UK’s biggest banks is building AI-driven customer journeys that are smarter, faster, and more efficient. From traditional NLU-based bots to cutting-edge Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, Mark shares how Cora Plus achieves up to 99% accuracy and drastically reduces handoffs to human agents.
Mark takes us inside NatWest’s pilot process – from narrowing 500 web pages down to a curated 120-item knowledge base to running internal tests, red-teaming for hallucinations, and prioritising customer consent and governance at every step.
We also discover how NatWest’s summarisation tool transforms the agent experience by reducing transcript review time and saving over 50,000 minutes weekly in both agent and customer wait time. With 1.2 million conversations a month and counting, this is a masterclass in scaling AI responsibly within a highly regulated industry.
In this episode
00:00 – Episode intro
2:33 – Introduction to NatWest and Cora
6:30 – Pre-Gen AI state of Cora’s impact on business
10:54 – Impact of COVID-19 and initial challenges
18:00 – Customer needs and strategy
20:10 – Accuracy rates
22:56 – Content strategy for LLMs
26:51 – Testing process
30:20 – First results with customers
31:29 – Collaborating with other teams
33:40 – Level of control over RAG pipeline
37:13 – Impact of Gen AI on productivity
39:20 – Personalisation and customisation
42:10 – How sub-brands benefit from the solution
44:18 – How Cora+ helps human agents
48:07 – What is not going well?
51:00 – Next steps
53:26 – Access to different models
57:05 – Future opportunities
58:10 – Conclusion and key takeaways
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