More than 150 innovative solutions in the fields of artificial intelligence, banking, mobility, digitalisation and sustainability have been identified and assessed for possible collaboration. To date, these are the results of the initiative named Digital Factory, the open innovation platform launched last December by CA Auto Bank in partnership with I3P, the Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, to explore new technologies capable of contributing to the bank's digital transformation, accelerating the internal innovation process.
CA Auto Bank, the digital bank that finances mobility by promoting sustainability in 19 countries around the world, is in fact looking for start-ups and SMEs, either Italian or international, to facilitate the adaptation of all business processes to the digital age, with the ultimate objectives of responding better to new consumer needs and pursuing responsible growth with value creation for the planet. The Digital Factory initiative is permanent in nature - it is always possible to submit a project, free of charge, on https://digitalfactory-ca-autobank.com/en - and is part of Start&Pulse, the European programme of Crédit Agricole Personal Finance & Mobility focused on open innovation.
The first half of 2024 closed with a confirmation of the high quantity and quality of innovative projects compatible with the ongoing research: of the more than 150 solutions whose preliminary analysis was carried out, the incubator I3P selected more than 50 projects for an in-depth technical evaluation. Each of these projects are examined on the basis of several criteria, including the maturity of the company, the potential benefit of the use case compared to other solutions already available on the market, the interest of the proposed application area, and the applicability of the solution within the CA Auto Bank ecosystem. Candidates who have proposed the most interesting use cases will be contacted by the Digital Factory team to build together a business case to be presented directly to the bank.
So far, among the solutions that have been selected for technical evaluation because of their potential to meet CA Auto Bank's needs, most fall in the Process Optimisation & Customer Experience group, while a dozen could be used by the bank's anti-fraud team and the remainder belong to the Communication, Digital, Transparency and Climate Risk categories.
Once the business cases have been built, the start-ups and SMEs will be able to meet with CA Auto Bank's internal managers to present their solutions and directly confront their corporate needs. The opportunity will be, then, to get to develop a joint Proof-of-Concept (PoC), thus testing and proving in the field the validity of the idea presented, as an occasion for a first collaboration with an international reality that may eventually open the door to reaching higher-level agreements.
