Meet ChatIT, CBA's AI-enabled IT support chatbot built with Azure services

Commonwealth Bank has shed light on a generative AI-enabled IT support chatbot that broke cover last week, revealing it is built with Azure services and accessed via Teams.

The chatbot, called ChatIT, was highlighted in the bank’s annual report [pdf], as a new AI-powered capability introduced during FY24.

“We introduced ChatIT, our generative AI-enabled IT support chatbot to help our people find fast solutions to technology issues,” the bank wrote.

“With an average response time of 14 seconds, over 10,000 employees have interacted with ChatIT and positively rated the experience, allowing them to focus on more meaningful work sooner and easier."

Executive general manager of global technology services, Mark Vudrag, told iTnews that ChatIT was launched in May and is accessible to every employee via Microsoft Teams.

“In three months, more than 13,000 employees have interacted with ChatIT to seek tailored answers relevant to their individual needs, for “how do I” related queries, to check the status of their tickets, and track major incidents,” Vudrag said.

ChatIT is also “designed to help employees find fast solutions to common technology issues such as password reset and information related queries,” he said.

“It has redefined how CBA supports its employees by simplifying common IT troubleshooting and streamlining support, whilst adhering to strict security protocols, ensuring that sensitive information is appropriately handled.”

On the backend, ChatIT is using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service, along with Azure AI Search and an Azure-based natural language processing service.

To produce accurate responses, ChatIT is hooking into the bank’s internal IT knowledge base which is maintained in ServiceNow.

Vudrag flagged the future integration of more internal knowledge sources, and an expansion of ChatIT’s capabilities.

“In the future, we plan to add exciting enhancements to ChatIT to ensure it continues to meet our employees’ needs,” he said.

“This includes simplifying the troubleshooting process by allowing employees to submit screenshots of an error message without having to translate it into words, providing the option to transfer to a human, and allowing greater access to information sources such as SharePoint, Jira and Confluence.”

Vudrag added that ChatIT is an example of the bank using technology "to create user-friendly solutions that meet the evolving needs of a modern workforce.”