Ally x LangChain Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2024

Created in collaboration with LangChain, the PII Masking module addresses a significant challenge for all companies working with PII (personally identifiable information, such as social security and account numbers) in highly regulated, consumer focused fields. Preventing PII from going into LLMs (large language models) is an absolute requirement for companies working with sensitive data in highly regulated industries, and for whom using today’s leading AI models would be a non-starter without this type of technological solution. The ability to mask PII from LLMs in a compliant and safe manner makes it possible to integrate and reap the benefits of these AI models.

For this reason, Ally, home to the nation’s largest digital-only bank, was excited to open-source the coding module – making it publicly available to all – and give back to the ecosystem by letting others benefit from this breakthrough. As a tech-forward institution, this decision emphasized Ally’s commitment to share valuable tools and insights with its peers during this pivotal time of learning how to harness AI’s capabilities in a safe, ethical, and inclusive way. And it’s clear there was a dire need for this solution: thus far, the PII Masking module been downloaded over a million times per month.

While the impact of this solution can reach far beyond Ally, the inspiration for it started with tackling Ally’s own problem. To build the Ally.ai platform—which is designed to bring AI tools to Ally’s employees and internal processes—PII filtering was needed to ensure security best practices, data privacy best practices, and to adhere to the bank’s governance and compliance needs. The PII Masking module was created by Ally engineers and has already transformed the company’s customer care team, assisting more than 700 customer care associates with thousands of conversations with Ally customers every day. The project’s success has also illuminated the roadmap for AIly to pursue additional AI innovations and use cases.