ING
ING builds a generative AI customer chatbot in seven weeks with McKinsey
ING, a Dutch bank, worked with McKinsey to replace part of its scripted customer chatbot with a generative AI one, built in seven weeks. CTO Magazine reports that in its first seven weeks the new bot helped 20 percent more customers resolve issues than the previous solution.
Key figures
Copied exactly from the sources. Copy any figure with its citation.
20
percent
More customers helped to resolve issues in the first seven weeks, compared with the previous solution1
approximately 85,000
Customer interactions each week by phone and online chat in the Netherlands1
roughly 40–45 percent
Share of customer queries the traditional chatbot could resolve1
What it took
The problem
In the Netherlands, ING receives about 85,000 customer interactions a week by phone and online chat. Its traditional, script-based chatbot could resolve roughly 40 to 45 percent of queries. Nearly 16,500 customers a week still had to wait for a live agent.
What they built
ING and McKinsey, with its AI arm QuantumBlack, built a chatbot that uses generative AI (software that writes answers in natural language) instead of fixed scripts. It looks up information in several internal sources, ranks possible answers, and shows several possible answers when the customer's intent is unclear.
How they did it
A joint team worked for seven weeks to design and deploy the bot. Risk and compliance staff were involved throughout. Custom guardrails stop the bot from giving sensitive financial guidance such as mortgage advice or investment recommendations. It first ran as a pilot with 10 percent of customers in the Netherlands who use the mobile support chat. ING's operations chief says the bank chose lower-risk areas such as chatbots first, because quality can be tested and problems repaired, and set up a faster AI risk process led by senior staff.
Results
CTO Magazine reports that over its first seven weeks the new chatbot helped 20 percent more customers resolve their issues, compared with the previous solution. ING's operations chief later said gen AI powers the chatbot, improves service quality and routes harder questions to human agents. No cost savings figure is published.
All reported figures
| Measure | Figure | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| More customers helped to resolve issues in the first seven weeks, compared with the previous solution | 20 percent1 | |
| Share of customers in the Netherlands included in the pilot | 10 percent1 | |
| Customer interactions each week by phone and online chat in the Netherlands | approximately 85,0001 | |
| Share of customer queries the traditional chatbot could resolve | roughly 40–45 percent1 | |
| Customers per week who still needed a live agent under the traditional chatbot | nearly 16,5001 |
Lessons for your project
Pick a use case where mistakes are fixable. ING's COO says it chose lower-risk areas such as chatbots, where quality can be tested and corrected.
Build guardrails with risk and compliance from day one. ING blocked the bot from giving mortgage or investment advice.
Pilot on a slice of real customers first. ING started with 10 percent of customers using its mobile support chat.
Set a baseline before you launch. ING knew roughly how many queries its old bot resolved and how many reached live agents.
Use outside experts to move fast, but free up your own people. ING's COO lists both as success factors.
Caveats
- The 20 percent result comes from a trade-magazine retelling of a McKinsey case study. McKinsey was ING's build partner. We could not open the original case study, so the exact definition of the metric is unverified.
- The bank's model, vendor and hosting are not named in either source.
- CTO Magazine says the chatbot launched in September 2023 as a pilot. The sources give no later production figures for the generative bot.
- The McKinsey interview (July 2025) confirms the chatbot runs on generative AI, but it gives no figures for it.
- The pages were read through web archive copies because the live pages blocked automated access.
Sources
- ING AI Chatbot: Building Smarter and Faster Banking Support
CTO Magazine · 2026-05-21 · News · ctomagazine.com
- Deploying AI at speed and scale: Talking with ING's Marnix van Stiphout
McKinsey · 2025-07-01 · Interview · mckinsey.com
Summarized in our own words from the sources above. Spotted an error? See corrections.