Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) partnered with Microsoft to co-engineer a single, AI-powered omni-channel platform for its contact center, replacing multiple legacy systems. The initiative was led by Martin Lindsay, Executive General Manager of Customer Service Direct, and was catalyzed in early 2024 by a rapid shift in customer expectations and the winding down of the bank’s existing virtual chatbot. The solution, built on Microsoft’s AI platform including Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Foundry, now powers the retail customer experience center of Australia’s largest bank and handles more than two million conversations every month through its voice and messaging channels. Shashank Verma, one of CommBank’s engineering leaders, collaborated directly with Microsoft’s development teams, spending three weeks at Microsoft headquarters near Seattle to validate new AI capabilities against real banking scenarios. The design is centered on a principle of “separating intelligence from channels,” using a central AI orchestration agent rather than embedding AI logic inside each individual touchpoint.