BANKING
AI made it £50m, so now this bank would like more AI
Lloyds Banking Group is hiring 300 tech specialists as it pushes deeper into AI, just weeks before chief executive Charlie Nunn is expected to reveal the bank’s next big strategy.
The new hires will work on agentic AI, meaning AI systems that can plan and carry out tasks with limited human input.
They are expected to support projects across fraud prevention, scam detection, internal document searches and more personalised online banking.
For now, the move will increase Lloyds’ headcount.
But the bank has not ruled out future job cuts as AI becomes more widely used.
Nunn previously said AI would mean reducing jobs “in some areas”, because apparently every AI announcement now comes with a small existential HR footnote.
Lloyds is not the only bank moving in this direction.
Santander’s Spanish owner is also using automation to cut costs, with plans to save more than £400m by 2028 and give AI tools to all 185,000 staff worldwide.
In brief:
Lloyds is hiring 300 AI specialists to work on fraud, internal tools and online banking.
The bank says AI has already delivered financial gains, with bigger benefits expected this year.
Banks are moving fast on AI, but questions remain around jobs, testing and how resilient these systems really are.
Claude wears loafers
Lloyds says AI is already helping its finances.
Generative AI added £50m to its balance sheet last year, and the bank expects a £100m benefit this year as it uses more agentic AI.
Still, there are concerns about how prepared banks are if AI systems fail.
KPMG found that while 93% of UK banking executives believe they could keep operating during a major AI outage, only 47% had tested for one.
Claude and Gemini being tailored for Lloyds’ systems is the most 2026 sentence eveeeerrrrrrr.- MG