How Shinhan Bank Uses Digital Assistants to Save 1.2M Hours Per Year

Shinhan Bank manages a sprawling operation—hundreds of branches, tens of thousands of employees, and regulatory requirements that demand precision across every transaction. As digital banking accelerated customer expectations, the bank recognized that its back-office processes were not keeping pace. Staff across branches spent disproportionate time on manual data transfers between siloed systems, compliance monitoring, and repetitive document reviews—work that had limited strategic value but required constant human attention.

The bank’s automation journey began in 2017 with focused back-office improvements, but leadership wanted something far more ambitious. Rather than automating isolated processes for a handful of teams, Shinhan aimed to give every employee their own digital assistant—an intelligent tool that could execute routine tasks on demand, across any application, without requiring coding skills.

Partnering with SK Inc. and Automation Anywhere, Shinhan launched the ‘My Bot’ initiative. Using Automation 360, Automation Co-Pilot, Automation Workspace, and Control Room, the bank deployed 15,000+ personal digital assistants to more than 14,000 employees. These system-agnostic bots work across any application the employee uses, executing on-demand automations for tasks ranging from compliance monitoring to loan processing to marketing analytics. Automated agents now verify regulatory compliance across all 800 branches, saving 3,200 hours weekly and ensuring consistent accuracy.

The numbers are striking. Over 1.2 million staff hours are saved annually, 100,000+ property loan register reviews are completed automatically each year, and Shinhan has created one of the world’s largest enterprise digital assistant deployments. The ‘My Bot’ program has also shifted company culture—employees are no longer passive recipients of automation but active participants who initiate digital workflows to reduce their own workload.

Shinhan’s next phase, planned for 2026, involves integrating AI through an Enterprise Knowledgebase that will connect the bank’s digital assistant infrastructure to structured organizational knowledge—enabling smarter decisions and a more data-driven workforce. The bank is transitioning from task automation to an AI-powered operating model.