Nest Bank’s dual focus on innovation and efficiency pays off with Microsoft Copilot

Nest Bank, based in Poland, has strategically positioned itself as a champion of micro-entrepreneurs. The bank recognizes how small businesses contribute over 50% of gross domestic product (GDP) and 50% of employment opportunities in Poland. Most financial institutions treat micro-entrepreneurs as retail customers. Nest Bank is one of the leading providers of advanced tools and services that add value to small business owners. “Micro-entrepreneurs don’t want to waste time in banking. They would rather invest it into their business. That’s why we offer them seamless transactions 24/7 using a full-feature mobile application, so there are no interruptions to what they’re trying to achieve,” shares Karolina Mitraszewska, Vice President of the Management Board at Nest Bank.

Embracing automation and artificial intelligence

Building on its strategy of financing services for micro-entrepreneurs, Nest Bank decided to pursue advancements in automation. "We started to automate almost every previously manual process at Nest Bank. If a process couldn’t be automated, we considered removing it altogether," Mitraszewska states. “We also revamped our approach to data engineering by migrating data sources to Microsoft Azure and adopting cutting-edge technologies like Azure Databricks. We believe that investing in cloud infrastructure and data management lays the foundation for the use of artificial intelligence (AI).”

After setting up the cloud infrastructure, Nest Bank prepared to introduce AI solutions across the organization. “It was important for us to encourage the implementation of innovation,” shares Mitraszewska. “We also wanted to give people the opportunity to simplify their lives using technology.”

Streamlining operations with Microsoft Copilot

Nest Bank started by leveraging Azure OpenAI Service to build an internal solution—an AI assistant that can automate and simplify a range of administrative tasks. But the adoption of the solution in the bank was insufficient. “Employees were often not using our internal solutions because these solutions were not embedded into day-to-day processes,” explains Przemyslaw Buraczyński, Director of Transformation Department at Nest Bank. “Most of the time, our people work using Microsoft 365 applications—creating presentations in PowerPoint, documents in Word, or having meetings on Microsoft Teams. So, the best way to encourage people to take advantage of AI was to use a solution that’s embedded in the ecosystem. That’s Microsoft 365 Copilot.”

Nest Bank was one of the first companies in Europe to introduce Copilot for Microsoft 365 to its employees, encouraging them to use it for everything from generating documents to brainstorming. Nest Bank has already seen outstanding time-savings. “For instance, we can set up workshops with our employees, where Copilot generates invitations and specific agendas based on the workshop's goal. This saves time and ensures a structured approach,” shares Buraczyński. “Creating workshop materials now takes five minutes instead of an hour.”

Copilot has also brought speed, efficiency, and consistency to internal meetings. “After meetings, we use Copilot to summarize discussions and organize tasks, especially for project purposes,” notes Buraczyński. “With Copilot, we can focus on the conversation and not worry about taking notes. This efficient process facilitates communication and significantly reduces lead time and time to market.”

Finally, Copilot also facilitates the creative process, helping Nest Bank staff overcome the intimidation of a blank page. “If you get stuck because you have an overwhelming task in front of you, you can always ask Copilot to create a first draft,” explains Buraczyński. “It helps you take the first step and gives you that momentum you need.”

Balancing efficiency with innovation

Having experienced working with AI, Nest Bank’s employees are now eager to look for innovative ways to simplify their tasks. "Every day, we hear our employees sharing what else they think could be optimized,” Mariusz Bukowski, Head of Data & AI at Nest Bank elaborates. “This means that they see Copilot and AI as something that will transform their job into something smarter and more creative."

Nest Bank’s strategy to cultivate both efficiency and innovation has paid off. "We encourage people to be creative and brave, which is not easy," shares Mitraszewska. “There were times when failures would discourage our employees. But we persevered, and the struggle was worth it. In the last 12 months, we have doubled our sales. We’ve also increased the transactions made through our mobile application, from an average of 60,000 to 80,000 daily. And we managed this growth with the same number of employees thanks to the efficiency we’ve gained. Our people are now passionate about innovation.”

Envisioning the future of banking

Nest Bank particularly appreciates the introduction of Polish language support in Copilot. “Most of our clients and our staff communicate in Polish, so this can multiply our Copilot benefits,” highlights Bukowski. Having Polish language support will help Nest Bank streamline services further. “In the long term, AI will become an integral part of banking and will completely change the way we do everyday tasks while maintaining the security and data protection; that is our priority. More efficiency means that we have lower operational costs, which in turn enables us to provide better value for money for our customers. And that’s thanks to Microsoft’s dual focus on innovation and efficiency with technologies like Copilot," Mitraszewska concludes.