KT Corp builds next-generation AI contact center for NH NongHyup Bank in W40b deal

KT Corp has built a next-generation AI contact center (AICC) for NH NongHyup Bank worth 40 billion won ($28.2 million).

KT Corp said Monday it had successfully completed the project, which converts the customer service systems of NongHyup Bank branches and mutual finance operations nationwide to an AI-based platform, improving service quality and operational efficiency.

KT Corp and NH NongHyup Bank pursued the project around four core objectives: enhancing AI service experience, optimizing the data-driven customer journey, upgrading consultation support operations and standardizing operational management. Building on those goals, the two companies said they achieved expanded AI consulting services, improved customer experience, greater operational efficiency and a next-generation AICC operating framework.

KT Corp integrated its AI call bot with NH NongHyup Bank's core business systems, enabling the AI to look up customer and account information and handle transactions directly.

The number of tasks the AI handles without routing calls to a human agent grew from 45 to 180, while speech recognition accuracy improved from roughly 90 percent to 97 percent. As a result, customer wait times and call-handling times fell by about 20 percent, and the workload on human agents decreased, the company said.

KT Corp also built an AICC operations portal that consolidates multiple service channels — video consultations, chat and email — into a single management interface. The company unified scattered customer data and consultation histories on one platform to strengthen continuity and consistency in customer service, and accumulated consultation data can now be used for customer feedback analysis and service improvement.

In addition, KT Corp built out the full next-generation AICC infrastructure, migrating NH NongHyup Bank's large-scale data to an integrated platform and optimizing the AI consulting service and operating environment. NH NongHyup Bank said it now has a framework to systematically manage customer satisfaction and consultation quality and to run its contact center operations on a stable footing.

The two companies plan to build on this project to expand AI- and data-driven consulting innovation. They will continue strengthening AI consulting capabilities — including the AI call bot and generative AI consultation support services — while developing a personalized customer experience management system using consultation data to jointly advance AI consulting innovation across the financial sector.

"Through close collaboration with NH NongHyup Bank, we have successfully built a next-generation AICC environment," said Hong Hae-cheon, head of the AX proposal and execution division at KT Corp's AX Business Unit. "Drawing on our accumulated experience in financial AX projects and our AICC technology capabilities, we will innovate the experience for both customers and agents, and establish an AICC model that leads AI consulting in the financial sector."