Inter (Banco Inter) scales AI operations with watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud in Brazil; 95% reduction in deployment effort.

From conversational AI to agent orchestration

Inter scales AI operations with watsonx Orchestrate

Inter has grown from a digital bank into one of Brazil’s largest financial platforms, serving more than 45 million customers through an expanding ecosystem of banking, payments, credit, investments and lifestyle services. As its portfolio evolved, so did the scope of its digital interactions. The bank’s virtual assistant, Seven, supported customer inquiries and self-service requests across more than 180 products, including approximately 80 transactional journeys connected to more than 100 APIs.

As customer expectations continued to evolve, the conversational environment needed to evolve into an AI operating model capable of scaling innovation while maintaining governance and operational resilience. At the same time, new advances in generative AI were creating opportunities to deliver more contextual and adaptive experiences than traditional menu-based interactions could provide.

For Inter, the challenge was not simply supporting scale. After years of operating a large conversational environment, the bank needed a path to extend its AI capabilities while preserving the reliability, integrations and operational practices behind critical customer journeys.

Building on eight years of strategic collaboration with IBM, Inter established a scalable AI orchestration foundation powered by IBM watsonx Orchestrate® on IBM Cloud® , evolving one of the world’s largest watson Assistant environments. The platform coordinates multiple AI agents and automates operational activities—from deployment to governance—helping the bank scale AI with consistency and operational control. The initiative was designed to evolve the bank’s conversational architecture while preserving the scale, integrations and operational continuity behind millions of customer interactions. Inter’s virtual assistant, Seven, supported customer inquiries and self-service requests across more than 180 products, making continuity throughout the migration a key requirement. All 18 assistants were successfully transitioned while preserving the integrations, governance controls and operational continuity supporting approximately 80 self-service journeys.

Through the migration, Inter evolved from traditional NLP-based assistants to its AI orchestration foundation, enabling more adaptive and contextual customer journeys. The environment supports AI-powered experiences across customer self-service journeys such as address updates, credit limit inquiries, card replacement requests and payroll loan status tracking, among other banking services.

IBM and Inter teams worked closely to validate integrations, align access controls and maintain continuity across critical informational and transactional services, helping the bank modernize its AI foundation without disrupting existing operations.

The transformation extended beyond technology. Inter established a Center of Excellence to promote AI development standards, governance practices and knowledge sharing across teams. The bank also automated deployment processes through watsonx Orchestrate APIs, creating a more streamlined operating model and a scalable foundation for future AI initiatives.

By automating deployment processes through watsonx Orchestrate APIs, Inter significantly reduced the operational effort required to manage its conversational environment. In 2025 alone, teams performed more than 350 manual JSON deployments, representing approximately 700 hours of work dedicated to operational activities. With deployment automation in place, activities that previously required hours of manual work can now be completed in minutes (an estimated 95% reduction in deployment effort), helping streamline the management of conversational services at scale and enabling teams to focus on higher-value AI initiatives.

The reduction in manual effort enabled teams to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time focused on initiatives that improve customer journeys and expand AI capabilities across the organization. Faster deployment cycles also provide greater agility when introducing updates and responding to operational needs, supporting a growing portfolio of digital services.

Together with its Center of Excellence and AI orchestration foundation, Inter now has a more scalable operating model for managing conversational services and advancing future AI initiatives.

A pioneer in the digital transformation of financial services, Inter operates as a global financial Super App serving more than 45 million customers. Through a comprehensive ecosystem of financial and non-financial services, the company combines technology, scale and financial strength to expand access to solutions that help create value in customers’ everyday lives.