The digital transformation of the world has also led to a complete overhaul of traditional models of operation in every sector. Inevitably, we have been thrust into a VUCA world where disruption is the name of the game. Industry developments are happening in shorter and quicker phases, making it tougher for organizations to keep pace with customers’ requirements. In this scenario, organizations have chosen data as their weapon to tackle the disruption head-on. Over the years, leading players in the IT space have used and processed data to drive business decisions and optimize both products and operations. However, in the last few years, the importance of data usage and its potential has been realized across sectors, turning it into an asset for industries. However, the sheer volume of generated data is making it difficult for industry players to arrive at precise decisions through restructuring data usage and insights.

Over the years, NEC has proven itself to be a leading industry player when it comes to assisting customers in their data and analytics journey and transforming their business models. NEC's highly experienced team of data specialists ensure the orchestration of next-gen technologies- data analytics, reporting, business intelligence, AI/ML, Robotics and more- to ensure a faster "data-to-value" cycle. Their thought leadership empowers them to deliver customized solutions for unique customer needs by leveraging a best of breed platform/product. With their range of services, they are helping customers across sectors tap the potential of data analytics.

Businesses have experienced a significant increase in operations as a result of predictive analytics and the processing of massive amounts of consumer data. Data analytics and artificial intelligence enable the linking of data to acquire consumer insights, expand the business, and optimize the performance and effectiveness of operations. These emerging innovations are no longer just the domain of technology companies, more and more businesses are using such technologies to help them navigate through the uncertainties and dynamics of their respective industries. Considering these developments, NEC has also created solutions for various industries, many of which have been successfully deployed and are currently in use.

Insurance Sector: NEC has developed solutions for the Auto and Healthcare industry which are designed to detect frauds. The Auto Insurance Claim prediction and Fraud Detection Suite not only detects fraud, but also predicts possible claim value. This can be leveraged for identifying padding fraud, which is more prevalent in the Auto Insurance domain. The Health Insurance Fraud detection suite provides a unique perspective of viewing claims fraud from the lens of both insured and health providers. Both solutions take into account the fact that fraud is context-specific. Hence, the solution schemes allow for the business context to play a vital role in determining the suitability of the AI / ML model for any given organization. Solutions also allow for the re-building of models from scratch, reducing knowledge capital within the client’s employee base.

Banking Sector: For banks to operate in a safe space free of malpractice, NEC has created two unique solutions. Synthetic Identity Fraud - With growing online transactions and the dropping need for face to face interactions, frauds through synthetic IDs are on the rise. Not only is it growing, but it is also the most difficult type of fraud for banks to detect and tackle. NEC’s solutions aim to bolster financial firms’ arsenal against these frauds by identifying them and nipping them at the bud. By combining Facial Recognition models and OCR models with traditional structured models, NEC’s solutions provide the additional edge needed to win the battle against fraudsters.

According to RBI’S Annual Report of 2020, Public sector banks—that witnessed a 234% year-on-year rise in fraud cases—accounted for 80% of the total reported instances. Private banks, which reported a more than 500% rise, formed over 18% of the total fraud cases. NEC’s Retail Bank Fraud identifies a fraudulent transaction from a set of banking transactions. While there are many rule-based solutions employed in the market, ML / AI-based solutions created by NEC augments human intelligence. We have looked at solutions that protect firms from external threats, now let us have a look at how AI / ML can help strengthen the system from within. With large volumes of data available to banks, the possibility of a security breach can compromise personal information shared by customers and puts their assets at risk. NEC’s PII Redaction solution is enabled with ML and AI to help conceal Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and ensure utmost data privacy for bank customers while enabling compliance for the financial firm.

Marketing Function: NEC’s Product Recommendation solution in the retail and BFSI sector offers cutting edge AI deployment to customers to reach a wider set of audience with a customized and diverse set of product recommendations. This answers the two key questions all marketing groups have – What product to target a customer with? And through what media channel? With digital customers on the rise, investments in marketing are taking new forms. Solutions built by NEC help identify the right customer-product combination to target, and the right marketing channel to target through. All this is done through the optimal combination of what worked in the past (structured ML modelling) and emerging patterns that are latent in the system (unstructured ML models), providing a much needed competitive edge.

As a society, we have maintained and nurtured technology throughout history to make it more effective with time. Owing to this, new technologies have become a part of our everyday life. It is now imperative to be proactive and understand how to regulate and manage them. Early adoption and smart implementation of AI / ML will not only ensure current success but will also help us move forward and rediscover new business and operating models.

By: Deepak Kumar Jha
Date: 26^th Aug, 2021