SEB to establish an innovation centre for businesses

SEB is planning on creating an innovation centre in their Tallinn headquarters, where businesses will be able to test new growth models that will help them grow faster than their competitors. The aim is to bring the globally proven methods used by start-ups to traditional companies, in order to implement innovation at a rate that is several times faster than what is being done today.

The idea behind establishing an innovation centre within the headquarters of SEB is to bring together businesses who wish to take a step forward in their development and to find the best way for doing so by trying out different solutions.
Allan Parik, Chairman of the Management Board of SEB: “Estonian entrepreneurs invest more in their businesses than their colleagues in Europe. At the same time, some of the countries with more modest investments, compared to us, are able to better increase their productivity. Investments by Estonian businesses have been decreasing since the beginning of 2013. Perhaps the precise cause of this decline is because businesses have been unable to find areas where investing would help them grow faster. The long-term goal of the centre to be established at SEB is to search systematically and continuously for areas in our clients’ businesses, the development of which would lead to an upsurge in profitability.

At the heart of the centre is a programme, which helps operating businesses to reach a plan on how to take a step forward in their businesses with an outlook of three to six months. Everything comes down to establishing ambition, to determine which goals are realistic, since underestimating your opportunities is one of the bottlenecks in the development of the Estonian economy.

Within the framework of the innovation centre idea, SEB also introduced its first virtual assistant, AIDA, today.

“Artificial intelligence in customer service is a field which may enter our lives sooner than we may think,” noted Ainar Leppänen, Head of SEB Retail Banking and Technology Area. “It is a field in which developments are rapid. At the same time, we must keep in mind that somewhere there is a limit, up to which the service can be provided by a robot and where the human factor starts playing an important role. SEB’s new colleague, AIDA, is able to learn from context, sense the ulterior motive, and interpret emotions. Although there are no virtual employees in Estonia, so far, digital solutions with a human face are being added quickly to the market – for example, starting this year our clients can open an account for their company via voice chat, although still with the help of a real bank employee,” Leppänen added.

Mart Maasik, the SEB Group Head of Innovation: “Digitalisation directly impacts the majority of the world. Implementing the skills and knowledge of people will become increasingly less dependent on the geographical location of our knowledge and, thanks to automation, several current limitations will be abolished. These changes clearly concern every Estonian company and person, open up new possibilities, and raise questions to which there are no simple answers. What is certain, however, is that the world is moving quickly and standing still means that we are actually moving backwards. Thus, every company should ask these questions and search for answers through practical testing.”

For more information:

Evelin Allas
Communications Manager
Marketing and Communications Division
SEB

Phone +372 665 5649
Mobile +372 511 1718
Address Tornimäe 2, 15010 Tallinn
e-mail evelin.allas@seb.ee
www.seb.ee

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