From a year-long integration to under a month.
At the SME Forum on Transformation, Matthew Lee explained how moving verified data delivery from an API to an AI agent in an email inbox changed the timeline with China CITIC Bank International.
Fill Easy joined the panel at the SME Forum on Transformation: Navigating New Smart Digital Future, organised by The Hong Kong Association of Banks with HSBC, Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), China CITIC Bank International and Hang Seng Bank, and HKPC as SME partner.
Our thanks to China CITIC Bank International for the invitation. Fill Easy works with CITIC as its startup, SME and data partner, and CITIC has been forward-looking in how it brings new technology into its SME banking. Working alongside a team with that mindset has shaped how we deliver. Thank you also to Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and Philip Cheung for bringing us together in the first place.
How AI changes what an SME gives a bank
The panel asked how AI changes the way SMEs provide value to banks. The example we shared came from our own work with CITIC.
We used to deliver our data through an API. That meant an integration project on the bank's side: specification, development, testing and security review, usually about a year from kick-off to go-live. Nobody wants to wait a year to see a return, and every change afterwards was another project.
An agent that lives in an inbox
Now we deliver the same data through an AI agent that lives in an email inbox. A member of the bank's team sends a request the way they would to any service provider. The agent reads it, pulls the verified company and director records from registries in Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas, and replies with the documents.
- Nothing to integrate: the bank's team uses the email they already have.
- Changes are conversations: a new request type is agreed in a reply, not raised as a change request.
- The same verified data: records still come from the registries, with the documents attached.
With CITIC, that took delivery from a year-long project to under a month.
Thanks also to fellow panellists Keith Wong, Christina Wong and Sam Sio, and to HSBC, Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank and HKPC.
