Lloyds Banking Group Plc has teamed up with the University of Cambridge to train 300 senior staff in artificial intelligence as part of the bank’s technology shake-up.

The first group of leaders from the British bank are starting to take the 80-hour course this month in order to adopt an “AI-first” mindset, Rohit Dhawan, head of AI and advanced analytics at Lloyds, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Dhawan, who joined the group in August 2024, said AI development at Lloyds has been like “flying an airplane while building it.” The bank has now completed its three-year migration of data and AI assets to cloud, setting the firm up for scaled AI adoption.

Banks around the world are racing to use AI tools, with the sector seen as one of the biggest prospects for the technology to speed up processes and save on costs — as well as potentially replacing thousands of jobs. Lloyds has spent several years overhauling its technology estate more broadly, including assessing thousands of technology staffers in the UK and dismissing or moving some workers.

Lloyds is already starting to see an impact from its work in this field. Around 100 staff are developing an AI-enabled agent that will be beta testing in the coming months, Dhawan said. He said Lloyds is in regular dialog with the Financial Conduct Authority on how to deploy AI safely, including around future potential uses such as financial advice.

The training program for Lloyds senior leaders is designed and delivered by experts at the bank, in collaboration with education technology firm Cambridge Spark and Cambridge university. The course includes training on AI regulation and ethics, how generative AI works and its challenges, along with newer developments such as agentic AI that can act independently from human users, according to Raoul-Gabriel Urma, founder of Cambridge Spark.

The bank has also enrolled about 3,000 staff on courses with Google, which includes learning paths for AI specialists, data scientists, business intelligence specialists and data engineers.

Lloyds is an investor in Aveni.AI, a startup that is building a large language model specifically for financial services.

The lender is actively hiring in the UK and in India, where it’s had a technology outpost in Hyderabad since 2023. The firm has over 1,000 live vacancies, with around 70% for technology and data roles.

— By Aisha S Gani