This week, reports highlight how NatWest became the next big banking firm to explore AI and its benefits for the financial sector. The banking giant is working with OpenAI to optimize customer support processes, using the latter’s service to improve Cora chatbot and AskArchie virtual assistant.
NatWest Group Chief Information Officer Scott Marcar added:
AI is already playing a vital role in our digital transformation; helping colleagues across the bank to serve customers in a more personalised and productive way.
Natwest is no stranger to AI however, as reports note how the firm is working on more than 275 AI projects.
Notably, Natwest is exploring AI integrations to reduce fraud via Cora and OpenAI optimizations in an effort to fight scammers who stole roughly $740 million in 2024.
“Around 80% of our retail customers bank with us entirely digitally,” remarked NatWest’s retail banking CEO Angela Byrne, emphasizing the importance of secure digital banking.
“which is why continually innovating to deliver the best digital experience possible is a non-negotiable,” Byrne concluded.
CBA & Anthropic Double Down on Banking AI
Anthropic has recently expanded its significant partnership with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) by investing in internal safety measures and research into AI practices for the large banking firm. This initiative aims to enhance the CBA’s growing adoption of Anthropic’s AI services, which are intended to improve customer experience and safety workflows.
Gavin Munroe, CBA’s Group Chief Information Officer, noted:
[The] enhanced strategic partnership and investment in Anthropic will help our teams accelerate our AI capability. AI is delivering more personalised and intuitive customer experiences today and it holds great potential to reimagine how our customers bank in the future.
Moreover, by continuing its work with Anthropic, CBA will be able to leverage the technology partnership to highlight AI use cases and, therefore, strengthen in-house technology capabilities.
Munroe explained that CBA workers will now have the opportunity to work with Anthropic’s AI experts “to explore how we can accelerate how we build the products to serve and protect our customers, including how we can further protect customers and communities from scams and fraud.”
Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s Chief Financial Officer, also said:
Our partnership with Commonwealth Bank of Australia through this strategic investment represents a shared commitment to developing AI that is both powerful and creates meaningful value for customers. By combining Anthropic’s advanced AI capabilities with CBA’s deep financial expertise, we can create more personalised experiences for customers while maintaining the highest standards for safety and security.
Anthropic CEO Predicts 2025 Economic Disruption
The news follows remarks by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who emphasized the significant impact AI could have on workflows and various enterprise sectors. He spoke at a keynote event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, where he discussed AI’s capabilities and its potential effects on programming job roles and economic futures.
Amodei calls AI’s potential economic disruption a worry and “existential,” adding:
In the short run, we are going to need to manage the disruption, even as the pie gets much larger. In the long run, as I’ve said, we’re going to need to think about a world where AI—and I don’t want to lie about this—I really think this is where this is going—is going to be better than almost all humans at almost all things.
“I just invite you to consider the hypothetical and start considering the possibility of crazy things like that now,” remarked Amodei.
Amodei noted that “the whole population, again, thinks of this stuff as chatbots. If we say this is dangerous, if we say this could replace all human work, it sounds crazy because what they are looking at is something that, in some cases, seems pretty frivolous, but they don’t know what’s about to hit them.”
The future of economics, the financial sector, and banking may prove to be determined by the advancements of AI. Therefore, casting a looming change over the world and its leaders, how this future is shaped could very well be led by economic leaders and leading AI partners.
