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Lloyds Banking Group has poached Amazon Web Services executive Rohit Dhawan as head of artificial intelligence strategy, a new role the British bank is creating as part of its digitalisation efforts.
Lloyd’s announced on Monday that it had hired Dhawan as its first group director of AI and advanced analytics.
Dhawan, who holds a PhD in AI from the University of Sydney, previously led AWS’ data and AI strategy in Asia Pacific and will report to Ranil Boteju, chief data and analytics officer at Lloyd’s.
The move comes as banks seek to adopt AI and machine learning more broadly to boost productivity and cut costs. Some experts have warned that regulatory concerns are slowing incumbents from adopting the technology. Morgan Stanley was one of the first financial institutions to appoint a group head of AI in March.
“Rohit’s appointment marks a major boost to the strategic development of AI technology and capabilities within Lloyds Banking Group,” said Boteju. “Rohit will help further integrate AI work into business priorities across the business, consistently scaling AI to deliver outcomes that are aligned with our strategy.”
The bank said Dhawan will be tasked with overseeing the integration of AI into customer and business processes and building new data and AI capabilities within the bank.
The bank said he will also oversee an “AI Center of Excellence” made up of experts in data science, behavioral science, machine learning engineering and AI ethics.
“I am honoured to join Lloyds Banking Group and excited to work for an organisation that is experiencing one of the biggest transformations in financial services and explore how we can transform the way we use data and technology to meet changing customer needs,” Dhawan said.
The bank has spent more than two years implementing a strategic plan to overhaul thousands of middle-management positions as it aims to digitise its operations and boost profitability.
Lloyd’s said it was hiring 1,500 technology and data experts this year and piloting 50 AI use cases to speed up customer support, improve chatbots and help detect early warning signs of fraud.
The group says it uses machine learning algorithms to prioritise customer calls and verify income when applying for a mortgage, cutting the process from three weeks to just a few seconds.
Lloyd’s, which also has an insurance and pensions division, said it used AI to help register insurance claims after the January storms, freeing up time to respond to urgent calls from customers.
