How Absa Bank uses AI

In its first half 2026 technology performance statement, Absa Group describes an agentic AI based chatbot at the customer facing level that understands natural language, asks clarifying questions and gives personalized, data driven answers. The bank says it handles over 100,000 queries a month from approximately 1.6 million users, and that its business banking capability supports 11 official languages. The statement does not name the product or the channel.

Absa Group reports that more than 1,400 developers use AI assisted coding tools, including GitHub Copilot and Claude Code, which it says speed up development cycles. Across the wider workforce, over 30,000 employees use Microsoft Copilot every month, and more than 4,400 colleagues with Copilot Pro licenses build personal automation agents, with over 3,800 of them live in production. The bank names productivity gains but gives no percentage.

Absa runs Abby, a customer facing assistant built on Salesforce Agentforce, in production. At a Salesforce event in June 2025 Absa's Relationship Banking technology chief described it asking business customers about their needs, such as working capital, and recommending matching products. The report says that, according to Absa's website, the agent can help customers apply for loans, open investment accounts and make international payments. Absa staff set guidelines on what the agent may not do, and Salesforce says it urges its partners to route topics such as pricing to employees. Salesforce could not share the impact on Absa customers, and no outcome figures were disclosed.