Shinhan Financial Group said on March 25 it signed a memorandum of understanding with NC AI on March 24 at its headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, to advance future financial channels based on AI.

The agreement aims to apply digital twin technology to financial channels to closely analyse customer experiences, going beyond analysis of fragmentary data such as transaction logs or queue tickets.

A digital twin is a technology that reproduces a real space in a virtual environment to run analysis and simulations.

NC AI is a company that develops an AI world model linking the real and virtual worlds based on physical AI technology, supporting data-driven decision-making.

Shinhan Financial plans to build a virtual environment identical to an actual branch and validate various scenarios to derive ways to improve customer convenience.

Through technology verification, the two sides plan to analyse customer visit patterns in real time and optimise routes and the placement of counters and kiosks. They also plan to verify in advance the impact of changes in operating methods.

Video information used in the process will be handled in line with personal information protection standards, including de-identification.

The partners also plan to conduct parallel research to prevent financial accidents from the perspective of internal controls.

Shinhan Financial plans to progressively upgrade task-scenario modelling and group-level channel strategy based on analysis data.

A Shinhan Financial official said, "Through digital twins, we will convert the entire customer-use process into data and provide an optimal experience," and added, "We will continue to push improvements to customer experience and strengthen internal controls by using physical AI."