NatWest is betting on AI to tame expenses and grow its assets and revenue. 

The $1 trillion bank aims to simplify operations and embed AI in its processes to drive efficiency, Chief Executive Paul Thwaite said during today’s fourth-quarter earnings call, adding that the tech will be used to drive growth, improve productivity and enhance the customer experience.

The London-based bank will redeploy “capital to drive returns with a greater emphasis on dynamic pricing as we increase our speed and agility with more advanced data and analytics,” Thwaite said.

NatWest expects AI to increase assets and liabilities “at an annual rate greater than 4% from 2025 to 2028,” he said. 

NatWest is already reporting early efficiency gains from AI.  

For 2025, the bank reported: 

• A savings of 70,000 employee hours from its AI-aided call center tool, which handled 700,000 interactions with retail clients; 

• 12,000 coders are using AI-assisted tools and 35% of all coding is generated by AI; 

• A 20% increase in customer resolutions aided by gen AI-driven chatbot Cora for retail clients; and 

• A 15% reduction of helpdesk calls from commercial banking clients through another gen AI-driven chatbot. 

The tech-driven simplification spurred the bank’s cost-to-income ratio to drop by 4.8% year over year to 48.6%, according to the bank’s earnings report. It forecast the ratio to be below 45% in 2028. 

NatWest has opted for an AI-agnostic approach, according to FinAi News’ prior reporting. 

The bank works with: 

• OpenAI; 

• Amazon Web Services’ Bedrock;  

• IBM; and 

• Microsoft’s Copilot. 

BY THE NUMBERS 

In Q4, NatWest reported: 

• Operating expense, which includes tech expenses, of 2.2 billion pounds ($2.9 billion), down 0.8% YoY; 

• Total income of $5.7 billion, up 13% YoY; and 

• Net interest income of $4.2 billion, up 14.7% YoY. 

Editor’s note: All figures have been converted to USD. 

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