ANZ launches AI centre with Microsoft, dumps own Z-GPT tech

The big four bank will put 3000 staff through a new AI upskilling program as it phases out its own answer to ChatGPT, launched just one year ago.

ANZ group technology executive Gerard Florian says ‘a lot of organisations’ are looking to improve productivity quickly. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

ANZ is kicking its answer to ChatGPT to the curb as it forks out a significant sum on thousands of AI product licences from Microsoft.

The big four bank’s Z-GPT, a generative AI tool built by its staff in India that could tell bankers interest rates, will be sidelined in the wake of the launch of Copilot for Microsoft 365, of which ANZ has purchased 3000 new licences for its management staff.

Like many in the wake of ChatGPT’s public release in November 2022, ANZ had sought to stay ahead of the curve and build its own version.

That was called Z-GPT, a generative AI tool that uses OpenAI and Google’s models to tell staff about interest rates and respond to simple language queries.

But Z-GPT is being put in the back cupboard in the wake of the Copilot for Office 365 licences, ANZ group technology executive Gerard Florian said.

“The role of that Z-GPT tool is somewhat diminished by what’s become available for Microsoft, and that’s fine,” he said. “We kind of always knew it wasn’t going to be there for long, but that was one of the mechanisms we put in place early on which we don’t see as much need for today.”

From left: ANZ chief technology officer Tim Hogarth, group executive technology Gerard Florian and head of technology workforce Carina Pairsella. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

Mr Florian said Z-GPT would not be retired completely, but most of its “primary use cases there can be covered with Copilot within Office 365”.

Z-GPT was developed in India, by the bank’s AI Centre of Experimentation in the city of Bengaluru. The group was established in March last year and took just five months to launch Z-GPT.

“Our centre has some of the best engineers in the bank who have been critical in developing Z-GPT,” ANZ chief technology officer Tim Hogarth wrote at the time of launch.

The bank might still have uses for Z-GPT and would still look to experiment with AI and new technologies as they emerge, Mr Florian said.

The immersion centre was formed after ANZ gave 400 staff access to Copilot for Microsoft 365 in November 2023.

When the trial was up, “about 90 or 91 per cent of the people basically said they wouldn’t want to give it back”, Mr Florian said.

“When it comes to time saved … across the group it probably averages around 30 to 40 minutes a week.”

Microsoft is the big winner from the trial, with the bank now sidelining Z-GPT and purchasing 3000 Copilot for Microsoft 365 licences and developing a dedicated “AI Immersion Centre” at its Collins Street office in Melbourne to teach staff how to use it.

That’s one of the largest purchases from an Australian company, and the first for a major bank, only to be outdone by telco Telstra which purchased 21,000 Copilot licences for its staff.

The bank is betting that the investment will lead to a somewhat significant return in productivity after it puts management and leaders through several hour-long courses on how to use the likes of generative AI.

“I think, rightly, a lot of organisations are looking to enterprises to see how quickly they (will get) get that productivity improvement (from AI),” he said.