CSOP Asset Management Limited strengthens the investment ecosystem with Azure OpenAI Service, boosts information retrieval by 20%

With AI advancements and policies shaping the current trajectory of Hong Kong’s financial sector, the company continues to evolve to keep pace with new market dynamics and investor preferences. In particular, the increasing need for accessible, transparent, and customizable investment products requires it to transition to cutting-edge innovations to maintain market competitiveness and enhance customers’ investment experience.

Modernizing data infrastructure to enhance competitive advantage

Having relied on traditional software and systems, CSOP Asset Management grappled with complex maintenance and manual updates. These maintenance procedures not only consumed significant amounts of time and human resources but also resulted in suboptimal data processing and customer service. Moreover, the cost of maintaining and upgrading legacy systems strained CSOP Asset Management’s budget significantly.

The absence of an in-house data exchange system led to inefficiencies in information sharing and collaboration across the organization. For instance, the sales team predominantly used spreadsheets and email systems to manage customer relationships and track sales opportunities, resulting in fragmented processes and limited coordination among team members.

The system architecture was also susceptible to vulnerabilities and hacking incidents that placed significant time demands on staff for backup, troubleshooting, and data management.

Since its inception, the company has grown from an initial team of 10 to a current workforce of 120, the organization faced an urgency to upgrade the system to accommodate increasing workloads and improve security. From a workflow perspective, senior management dealt with hundreds of emails daily and had to spend significant time sorting through inboxes.  Measures to manually set up email filtering rules proved futile as these were unable to adjust to changes in keywords.

As expectations from internal stakeholders and external customers evolved, CSOP Asset Management recognized the need for more adaptable technologies. Facing scalability, time efficiency, and data security challenges in its legacy infrastructure, CSOP decided to leverage Microsoft Azure to enhance its competitive advantage and cloud strategy. The company began using Microsoft Azure for data storage, analysis, and processing in October 2023.

Reducing IT workload by 50% while enhancing data security and agility

Microsoft Azure has empowered CSOP Asset Management with strengthened data security and compliance in the face of evolving data regulations. The infrastructure facilitates data compartmentalization and categorization into various access levels, ranging from public to internal use, and mitigates the risk of data leakage. In addition, Microsoft has robust security measures in place that help ensure that sensitive data stored in the cloud remain confidential.

Microsoft Azure's ability to store and analyze vast amounts of data provides a robust foundation for CSOP Asset Management's big data analysis and customer data management. Leveraging Microsoft Azure's range of automation tools and applications has streamlined daily tasks, enhanced overall work efficiency, and reduced manual operations at the organization.

Before the Microsoft Azure implementation, two employees handled IT maintenance. With the new infrastructure, workload reduced – requiring only one person for maintenance. This freed up the other employee to develop additional systems for business growth. CSOP Asset Management was also able to allocate more resources to improving security measures post-deployment.

Microsoft Azure’s infrastructure supports AI models capable of bugging code and generating code based on natural language prompts. With Azure OpenAI service, an extensive suite of AI services and automation tools, CSOP Asset Management can leverage natural language algorithms to enhance work efficiency and streamline software development.

“Microsoft Azure gives us the flexibility and scalability to adjust resources and services based on rapidly changing market demands. For our IT teams, the unified architecture has simplified infrastructure management, enhanced IT resource allocation, and supported the faster deployment of new services, all of which enhanced our agility to respond to evolving business requirements,” said Melody He, deputy CEO of CSOP Asset Management.

Harnessing AI to filter out 80% of non-essential correspondence and streamline communication

Leveraging Azure OpenAI Service, the company developed a bespoke chatbot and email pre-classification system, leading to significant improvements in customer service and internal communication across the organization. Azure OpenAI Service's features such as email filtering and emotional tone assessment prevent oversight of crucial messages, providing valuable support for employees working remotely or on business trips.

“We've effectively filtered out 80% of non-essential correspondence. We’re now able to focus on genuine customer inquiries. Azure OpenAI Service has greatly enhanced our responsiveness and service quality,” said He.

By integrating Azure OpenAI Service, CSOP Asset Management was able to create an intelligent assistant that can understand and respond accurately to queries. CSOP Asset Management’s AI-powered chatbot has boosted information retrieval efficiency by 20%, granting employees rapid access to information on company policies, project statuses, asset/ETF performance, and general inquiries. Employees’ ability to access internal resources through a knowledge base has reduced reliance on other team members for resources. For instance, new employees can quickly get accurate product information by asking the chatbot, instead of colleagues.

Making HR and recruitment more purpose-driven

For CSOP Asset Management’s HR and recruitment teams, Azure OpenAI Service has expedited candidate shortlisting, resulting in considerable time savings. It also empowered these teams with content creation capabilities in day-to-day tasks, including writing emails and generating accurate job descriptions.

“Whenever I’m inundated with HR issues, Azure OpenAI Service is able to offer diverse perspectives that challenge me to reexamine these from different angles. This technological support has not only increased my productivity but also expanded my way of thinking,” said Tarzan Kam, Senior Associate for HR.

Banking on Aides to propel innovation and growth

Following favorable business outcomes and improved customer service, CSOP Asset Management will continue to capitalize on Azure OpenAI Service to enhance its data processing and decision-making capabilities across functions to meet the evolving demands of an AI-driven world.

“Leveraging AI for market trend analysis, risk assessment, and customer service automation enables more effective use of data, improves response times, and mitigates operational risks. Moving forward, we hope to increasingly leverage Azure OpenAI Service to facilitate investment decisions and better keep track of ETFs and stocks,” said He. “As we continue to embrace opportunities for innovation, our partnership with Microsoft will help drive the company towards sustainable growth and enable us to meet customer expectations.”

CSOP Asset Management also intends to test Copilot for Microsoft 365 as part of its efforts to enhance work efficiency and foster creativity. By automating tasks and providing intelligent assistants, the technology is seen to drive the company’s employee productivity and empower employees to dedicate more time towards strategic and creative work.

“AI is unlocking new pathways to innovation and business growth in the financial services industry. We are excited to strengthen our partnership with CSOP Asset Management with Azure OpenAI Service, which serves as an engine for true transformation and delivers agility at scale,” said Peter Lee, Head of Commercial Business, Microsoft Hong Kong

Based on IDC’s recent findings, 71% of Hong Kong companies have already joined the AI bandwagon. Microsoft is committed to empowering financial services organizations with  innovative AI tools and technologies in a safe, secure, and transparent environment –  backed by enterprise-grade AI services and robust security measures – in line with solidifying Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center.

Reach out to us to explore how you can leverage Azure OpenAI Service to enhance knowledge mining, internal policy discovery, and customer engagement capabilities – while remaining compliant to Hong Kong’s quickly changing regulatory requirements.