Commerzbank AG fuels 30,000 monthly conversations with Foundry Agent Service

The need to create smarter banking experiences with human-centered AI

Trust is the currency of modern banking, but it’s harder than ever to earn. Customers want instant, personalized service, while banks must confront fraud, navigate complex outdated systems, and meet tough regulations.

For Commerzbank AG, one of Germany’s leading financial institutions, these challenges became a catalyst for transformation. Every transaction, whether a simple transfer or a complex business payment, must be reliable, secure, and efficient. By embedding trust into its digital banking architecture, Commerzbank AG ensures confidence at scale while navigating regulatory complexity and evolving customer expectations.

Gerald Ertl, Managing Director and Head of Strategic AI Program at Commerzbank AG, explains, “We were seeing a necessity to build a bridge between what our customers expected and what our systems could deliver. We needed a new way to serve—not just faster, but smarter and more human.”

That realization sparked the creation of Ava, a conversational AI agent designed not just to automate tasks, but to restore the personal connection in digital banking. Ava represents the future of banking, where intelligence and empathy converge. 

Engineering intelligence: Building a distributed system for banking

From the start, Ava was built with a clear purpose—to make banking feel personal in a digital-first world. She blends empathy with engineering precision, fueled by advanced natural language processing and adaptive learning. Ava doesn’t just respond; she is built to understand context, anticipate needs, and orchestrate complex workflows across multiple systems in real time. Ertl explains, “Our avatar stands for our customer-oriented AI strategy, reflecting responsible AI and innovation.”

To continually improve Ava, Commerzbank AG is now evolving the agent, using Foundry Agent Service, so that a network of specialized agents will manage distinct tasks across the bank’s operations. This agentic architecture provides a trusted, scalable foundation for building agentic AI. 

Natural language understanding was critical. Ava uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models to interpret customer intent and generate responses that feel conversational, not scripted. This equips Ava to manage complex, high-value requests such as credit card lifecycle management, savings account inquiries, or balance inquiries with both clarity and empathy.

Security and compliance are built in. Azure AI Content Safety filters sensitive data before it reaches the model, detecting potential fraud patterns and strengthening Commerzbank AG’s end-to-end security posture. Azure Cosmos DB synchronizes the shared context so every conversation remains consistent, accurate, and compliant. Every design choice in Ava’s architecture reinforces a single principle: technology should encourage trust, not replace it.

Denise Reffelmann, Business Product Owner at Commerzbank AG, emphasizes, “Security and trust are foundational. Ava doesn’t just talk to customers—she acts on their behalf. That means she must be as secure and compliant as any human employee, which is why we rely on Content Safety plus customized filters to monitor and help protect every interaction.” 

Scalability without compromise delivers high performance. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) keeps the system elastic, adapting automatically to handle thousands of customer interactions without disruption. Behind the scenes, Microsoft Fabric is being implemented to persist and analyze conversation flows, helping Commerzbank measure outcome quality and continuously improve customer satisfaction.

During the development of Ava, Commerzbank AG deployed GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Foundry tools, and agentic frameworks. According to the customer team, the associated frameworks made development twice as fast, compared to previous approaches. This acceleration came from using AI in the development, streamlined build-and-release processes, and automated testing incorporated into the DevOps pipeline.

Ava is grounded in trusted data. Within Foundry, Foundry Agent Service interoperates with Azure AI Search to help ensure that Ava retrieves information from trusted data sources. As a result, every response is accurate, compliant, and contextually relevant.

In a relatively short time, Ava progressed from prototype to production. Today, the agent manages more than 30,000 customer conversations per month, resolving about 75% of calls autonomously and delivering a high-resolution rate for designed tasks, which brings considerable relief to call center agents, all with dependable service availability at all hours of the day.  

Human connection at digital scale

Ava’s impact is both operational and human-centric. By automating routine service tasks, Commerzbank AG has reduced response times and freed customer service agents to focus on complex, relationship-driven work. One of Ava’s most valuable use cases is managing the entire credit card lifecycle—from ordering and limit adjustments to replacement and blocking—giving customers immediate, round-the-clock access to services that once required manual intervention.

To make these interactions even more natural, Commerzbank AG invested heavily in Ava’s persona, tone, and behavior. The goal: to make every experience feel respectful, helpful, and human. Many customers who reach out to the bank are under pressure. For example, they may be worried about a lost credit card or need to increase a limit, both of which Ava can do immediately. In addition, Ava can escalate to a human colleague when needed.

Commerzbank AG uses the text to speech avatar from Azure Speech in Foundry Tools, readying Ava to process spoken requests and respond with lifelike audio. This is creating a truly conversational banking experience that feels personal and intuitive.

“We wanted Ava to be more than a tool. She’s a reflection of our brand. The agent listens, assists, and connects customers to a human when needed,” says Christoph Jakfeld, Technical Product Owner at Commerzbank AG.

Ava is built to not only answer questions, but to solve problems. If a customer asks about a delayed payment, Ava doesn’t just cite policy; she can check the transaction backlog. 

Designing trust into every interaction

Ertl explains, “Foundry Agent Service gives us the building blocks for the future and has changed how we think about service. Ava offers expert knowledge 24/7 without waiting time and empowers our teams, because they can now focus on what they do best: building customer relationships, solving complex problems, and driving innovation.” 

From the beginning, Commerzbank AG built Ava through close partnership with engineering, compliance, and legal teams, designing trust into every interaction. That cross-disciplinary approach proved that innovation and regulation can evolve together.

“Our architecture is modular, transparent, and highly secure, so we can build fast without creating risk,” says Jakfeld.

Today, that same framework serves as a blueprint for the bank’s next wave of AI initiatives, from internal agents that support employees to advisory agents that strengthen customer relationships. 

What’s next: Scaling Ava for the future of autonomous agentic banking

With Ava firmly established in production, Commerzbank AG is preparing to expand her capabilities using the next generation of Foundry Agent Service. Upcoming iterations will introduce more specialized agents capable of orchestrating multistep workflows across lending, business banking, and operations—all within the same transparent, auditable framework.

“Our vision for Ava is to develop her into a proactive, intelligent network that anticipates customer needs and delivers personalized service,” says Ertl. “She’s the proof point that AI can be personal, compliant, and scalable.”

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