DBS Upgrades AI Assistants With Agentic Capabilities for Over 10 Million Users
Source: iTnews Asia
DBS has upgraded its AI virtual assistants with generative AI and agentic capabilities, enabling over 10 million customers across Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan to complete banking tasks through natural language conversations rather than navigating menus.
DBS has taken a significant step forward in conversational banking by upgrading its AI assistants — DBS digibot for retail customers and DBS Joy for corporate and SME clients — with generative AI and agentic AI capabilities. The two assistants now serve over 10 million users across Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and are expected to handle more than one million customer chats per month. Instead of just answering questions, they can now execute tasks.
The shift is fundamental: DBS Joy can now retrieve transaction histories, analyse account data, and complete banking requests within the same conversation for corporate customers in Singapore, instead of directing users to navigate different sections of the banking platform. On the retail side, DBS digibot handles enquiries about cards, remittances, refunds and fee waivers, and will soon be integrated into the digiWealth platform to help customers navigate wealth-related questions. Later this year, the bank plans to add voice AI and deeper agentic capabilities, allowing customers to block cards, check reward points, and request fee waivers without leaving the chat.
This represents a meaningful evolution from AI-as-information-assistant to AI-as-digital-banking-assistant. DBS Group COO Derrick Goh put it plainly: the goal is moving from helping customers find information to helping them get things done. The bank is also keeping humans in the loop — new live chat functionality connects customers to service officers when needed, with chat-to-phone transitions planned for Q4 2026.
Why it matters for Singapore: DBS is Singapore's largest bank and a bellwether for AI adoption in Asian financial services. If agentic AI works at this scale — 10 million users, one million monthly chats — it will set the template for how banks across the region deploy conversational AI. Singapore businesses and consumers stand to benefit from faster, more intuitive banking, while the rest of the industry watches closely to see if agentic AI delivers on its promise without introducing new risks.
