Fubon Financial Holdings has partnered with Microsoft to launch Taiwan's first AI agent employee competition, the Copilot Studio Hackathon. The event encouraged employees without IT backgrounds to develop AI applications that automate business processes. The final round of the competition was held on September 5, with 21 teams and 65 participants from Fubon Financial Holdings and its subsidiaries. The focus of the competition has shifted from passive AI tools like personal assistants to more proactive AI agents tailored for specific tasks and departmental needs. Judges included senior executives from Fubon Financial Holdings, Li Qian, President of Microsoft's Large Enterprise Business Group, Wu Ziqiang, President of Microsoft's Expert Technology Group, and Zhou Xingrong, President of Acer e-Enabling Service Business Inc.
Jerry Harn, President of Fubon Financial Holdings, cited the World Economic Forum’s “Chief Economists Outlook” published in May, which reported that 45% of economists expect AI to have a disruptive impact on business by 2025. Harn stated: "Fubon actively embraces the AI trend by partnering with Microsoft to host the Copilot Hackathon for the second consecutive year. This marks the first AI agent corporate hackathon in Taiwan's financial sector. The company aims to empower employees through hackathon activities, encouraging colleagues to leverage advanced AI tools to achieve greater efficiency and productivity. Moving forward, Fubon will continue expanding application scenarios while deepening employee training and cross-departmental collaboration."
Li Qian commented: "Fubon Financial Holdings is one of Taiwan's earliest financial leaders to adopt AI applications. We are honored to collaborate once again this year in co-hosting the Copilot Studio Hackathon. Microsoft Copilot Studio has been adopted by over 160,000 enterprises worldwide. Through its low-code platform, financial partners can rapidly build AI Agents that align with specific scenarios—ranging from intelligent customer service and internal process automation to risk detection—enabling AI to truly integrate into daily financial services. Microsoft will continue to collaborate with Fubon Financial Holdings to explore innovative cases that help Taiwan's financial industry maintain its international leadership in the AI era.”
Following last year’s M365 Copilot Hackathon, this year’s event utilized Microsoft’s latest low-code tool, Copilot Studio. This tool allows users to customize knowledge sources and responses while deploying solutions on designated platforms. It also integrates with Power Automate workflow tools.
Since joining Microsoft’s M365 Copilot Preview program in 2023, Fubon Financial Holdings has deployed over a thousand account licenses with an active usage rate above 90% and more than 200 monthly uses. An internal survey from late August found that over 60% of employees said M365 Copilot saves them between half an hour and three hours per week; about 5% reported saving more than five hours weekly.
The hackathon featured solutions developed for specific departmental needs. For example, Fubon Securities created a platform for automated thematic investment portfolios using natural language input. Taipei Fubon Bank developed a solution for processing unstructured scanned documents in health reports. Fubon Life built an AI system capable of learning new types of surgeries for insurance claim reviews. Another team focused on automating ESG tasks such as email management and interdepartmental collaboration.
Over the past two years, Fubon Financial Holdings has organized three generative AI hackathons involving more than 100 teams across its six subsidiaries. These efforts have resulted in 23 different AI application scenarios. In July this year, a dedicated generative AI promotion team was formed with representatives from life insurance, banking, property insurance, securities, and asset management units.
Additionally, in 2024 Fubon held its third "Fubon TechDay Innovation Technology Matching Event," completing tests on projects such as an AI training robot and automated investment research report generation. The fourth edition is set for September with each subsidiary proposing specific topics for participating vendors.