Building AI apps for millions of users

Why work at a bank?

Décio: “Many reasons, but it’s mostly about having an impact. Here, you’re able to work with huge amounts of unstructured data, and the AI apps you build directly influence both clients and colleagues. And in terms of privacy, the data we work with is much more sensitive than that of ‘regular’ companies. The responsibility that comes with that is truly next level.” Thomas: “We actually get the resources to have an impact. And a bright idea gets the go-ahead fast. You learn so much on the job about audio and voicebots, for example. Or how to make sure your zero-trust architecture is actually secure, taking the perspective of potential hackers. It’s knowledge for a lifetime.” Décio: “If I get stuck, there’s always an expert I can talk to. You’re on the shoulders of giants here.”

Procedures and rules that hold things up

Décio: “Sure, things take their time here. But don’t forget: we’re in a heavily regulated sector, and rightly so. If you want to take a solution live, multiple parties have to sign off on it. Especially when it’s something novel.” Thomas: “It gives a sense of safety, knowing other experts are involved. Just like millions of Dutch people, I’m a client here too. I don’t want my data to become public knowledge because something was decided too hastily.” Décio: “It’s not like we constantly have to convince critics of our plans. It’s much more collaborative than that. When we begin a project, we start with a design sprint including the business and end users. For a whole week we pick apart every potential issue.” Thomas: “We include stakeholders every step of the way from pilot to production: are we headed in the right direction, have we under- or overestimated anything? The feedback we receive becomes part of our decision-making process, right from day one. That way, we make sure that after 90 days, the end result is truly secure.”

Millions of users

Thomas: “Let’s talk about scale. Here, you work for millions of external and tens of thousands of internal clients. Take mortgages: if we manage to improve the process, it directly impacts a life-changing decision for almost a hundred thousand people yearly. Or the voicebot project I was a part of. That bot takes a million calls every year, allowing us to assist our clients in a smarter and quicker way. If the question is about fraud, we send them to the right department straight away instead of to the same queue as people notifying us of an address change.” Décio: “I used to work on the infrastructure for our internal GPT client, which had to handle 40,000 daily requests. That leads to complex questions, for example on fair use. How do you make sure one power user doesn’t hijack all of the capacity? This chatbot gave more than 20,000 employees daily access to AI models, which was impossible before. That influences just about every process within the bank.”

Initiative and entrepreneurship

Thomas: “Every once in a while, you get a real treat. I worked on a standardised plan to handle calls through a voicebot, until I realised: if you improve the credit card process itself, clients won’t have to call in the first place. That was beyond the scope of this project, so I had to convince a few people to take this on. But we all saw that we couldn’t let this chance slide. If you bring an entrepreneurial mindset, you’ll be able to take on plenty of side quests, which is really appreciated around here.” Décio: “That freedom is definitely there, especially in our team. Our manager is always open to hearing our thoughts, making it much easier to take initiative. Have an idea? Let’s see what it can do for us. If it adds value, we do it. Simple as that.”

A blank cheque for growth: learn anything

Décio: “At most tech companies, you’ll be responsible for one specific part of an application. Our projects are greenfield: we start at zero and you’re allowed to do anything, which means you learn a lot.” Thomas: “We do everything ourselves: from front end to back end, from infrastructure to AI. When I joined the Innovation department, that really took me by surprise. In previous job applications, every follow-up interview seemed to deviate further from the role I had originally applied for. That wasn’t the case here at all.”

Turn your AI hobby into a career

Thomas: “We’re always on the lookout for new colleagues. We don’t just want technological know-how, though. We’re also looking for entrepreneurship: people who solve their own problems, preferably by making smart and creative use of the newest tech.” Décio: “Exactly. Not thinking ‘I can’t do this because I don’t have any experience’, but thinking ‘I haven’t worked on infrastructure before. Let’s try and see where I end up.’ If you’re tech-savvy and use AI to automate your life any chance you get, you’ll fit right in here. Hands-on, curious and daring: that’s the mentality we’re looking for!”