Data Governance Is Vital for Personalized Customer Experiences — JPMC Executive Director, Head of Data for ML and Intelligent Ops

(US & Canada) Dimple Thakkar, Executive Director and Head of Data for Machine Learning and Intelligent Operations at JPMC, speaks with Jack Berkowitz, Chief Data Officer of Securiti, in a video interview about the importance of data in financial services, managing consumer rights and regulatory compliance, implications of governing unstructured data, and the challenge of balancing customer experience and data security.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational finance company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware.

Data is at the heart of everything in the current financial services industry, says Thakkar. She shares that the head of data roles were announced to keep data at the heart of customer experience across channels, which is a key aspect of financial banking and services.

Adding on, Thakkar says that her team helps determine complicated data sources and the governance aspects of data storage. She works closely with the engineering, architectural, design, and product groups, while her team leads the data aspects.

According to Thakkar, customer 360 has been the biggest hurdle for financial services, which is why JPMC understands the unparalleled need for data. She adds that the organization has laid down four rules in this context:

1. Determining the data movement

2. Data governance

3. Delving deep into newly generated systems and how the experience is aligned with data

4. Leveraging AI and ML on top of experiences and as enablers

Managing consumer rights and organizational regulatory compliances

Moving forward, Thakkar discusses managing consumer rights and organizational regulatory compliance around data. She affirms that firstly, the organization governs its customer data in a detailed manner. For instance, it prioritizes customer consent based on the mode of communication, which could be an email, a text notification, or an in-person visit to the branch.

Thakkar maintains that all three aspects have different regulatory requirements in terms of how customer data is handled. She continues that data governance is no longer done for the sake of it; rather, it is what fuels such personalized experiences.

Additionally, Thakkar believes it is crucial for all sectors to comprehend how to make data governance a crux to personalize governance aspects for customers. Secondly, she remarks that as a financial services institution, JPMC has a heavy lift on governance and audits around AI tools such as LLM governance measures.

In continuation, Thakkar notes that the U.S. is yet to catch up with Europe on LLM governance because the nature of the customer concept is different when it comes to regulation. She says that every time a personalized experience is built for customers, many regulatory factors are taken into consideration, which proves that JPMC is stringent on financial services regulation.

The need to govern unstructured data

When asked about the implications of governing unstructured data, Thakkar asserts that unstructured data is crucial not only from a management or regulatory perspective but also from how it is stored and transmitted through systems.

Delving further, she says that there are three different phases of data:

1. Data on the surface

2. Transient data

3. Retention of data

She states that for unstructured data, these aspects of data are critical. For instance, the data may be stored in an encrypted manner for a couple of years, but once that unstructured data passes through a transient system, it gets transformed.

With that transient data, one may create a new model or a rule, which is why JPMC focuses on detailed regulation and governance, says Thakkar. She opines that the data governance and AI regulation industry will gain massive traction over the next five years, given the rapid influx of AI technologies.

Also, with the new shifts concerning AI, Thakkar reiterates that the financial services sector will have to brace itself with stricter regulations while balancing customer experiences.

The challenge of balancing customer experience and data security

When asked about balancing customer experiences and data security as organizations deploy agents, she stresses looking at it from two different lenses. From the perspective of financial services, as the guardian of data, balancing becomes necessary.

However, from a data perspective, Thakkar suggests leaving the scope open for design and product partners to be able to curate personalized experiences for customers while withholding crucial information such as card numbers. On the other side, as a customer, one would want to see connected experiences.

Therefore, while organizations can implement agents or AI/ML for customer experiences, it is necessary to be cautious and careful about the data shared, says Thakkar. She ensures that JPMC does not share any data across browsers, except for usage of its application or Chase.com.

While balancing customer experiences is a massive challenge currently, the organization is striving to ensure that the customer experiences are omnichannel, says Thakkar. For instance, whether customers use the application or call the call center, they will get the same experience.

In conclusion, Thakkar says that from a real-time data perspective, it is the biggest challenge to be able to sort through complete family accounts and provide context within the call. Thus, JPMC has binding regulations around its data usage.

CDO Magazine appreciates Dimple Thakkar for sharing her insights with our global community.