LHV Bank Partners with Gradient Labs for AI Customer Service Exploration
LHV Bank is launching a proof of concept (PoC) in collaboration with Gradient Labs to investigate the application of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing its retail customer service operations. The initial focus of this technological initiative will be on optimizing communications via email.
The PoC aims to precisely evaluate how agentic AI systems—characterized by their capacity for planning, reasoning, and controlled actions across designated workflows—can effectively support human customer service teams. LHV Bank is interested in determining whether these advanced technologies can manage both routine and complex customer inquiries more efficiently and consistently than traditional methods.
This initiative will actively seek to improve overall response quality while significantly reducing turnaround times. Importantly, LHV Bank emphasizes that human oversight is integral to the process, ensuring that the technology adheres to the bank’s rigorous governance, risk, and regulatory standards.
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Ensuring Safe Financial Services Support
In executing this PoC, LHV Bank has joined forces with Gradient Labs, a specialized AI support platform adept at navigating the sensitive nature of customer support within the financial services sector. Gradient Labs develops AI agents to automate voice, text, and email interactions, leveraging extensive domain expertise tailored to the complexities of finance.
This partnership will involve testing selected customer support use cases within a controlled environment. LHV Bank has made it clear that there will be a strong emphasis on the explainability, auditability, and accountability of the AI’s actions throughout the project.
Insights from Leadership on Responsible Innovation
Kris Brewster, interim CEO of LHV Bank, underscored the strategic significance of this trial. He pointed out that customer support serves as a crucial touchpoint for retail banking and expressed enthusiasm about the potential of agentic AI to enhance service offerings. Brewster noted, “This proof of concept allows us to explore how agentic AI could support our teams with email-based customer inquiries, while keeping human judgment and customer protection firmly in place.”
Dimitri Masin, CEO of Gradient Labs, highlighted the need for a balanced approach that integrates speed, accuracy, and empathy in customer interactions. He stated, “We’re pleased to collaborate with LHV Bank on this initiative. With retail banking, delivering speed, accuracy, and empathy is essential in one-on-one customer interactions. Achieving this at scale within the regulated environment is a significant advance for customer support in financial services.”
It is important to note that the current proof of concept is exploratory and does not entail fully automated decision-making for retail banking customers. The insights gained from this initiative will inform LHV Bank’s future strategies for AI-enabled customer support and contribute to the development of internal frameworks for the deployment of advanced AI solutions.