Barclays has deployed more than 250 live AI use cases in its operations and is looking to do more. 

The $2 trillion Barclays aims to take “advantage of the promise of new technologies like AI and cloud computing” to drive growth, Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan said during the bank’s earnings call today.

For fiscal 2025, Barclays reported operating expense [which includes employee costs and technology expenses] of 17.7 billion pounds ($24.1 billion), up 6% year over year.  

Some live uses of AI at the London-based bank are: 

• An FX trading and payments chatbot called BarxBotthat provides quotes 75% faster than the previous approach; 

• Fraud detection; and 

• Personalized services and better cross-selling. 

“For a long time in this industry, technology has revolved around the businesses,”  Venkatakrishnan said today. “Now as you see, not just in U.S., but across the industry, [with] the depth and extent of technology-based services, products, and delivery, the businesses are revolving around technology.” 

Cloud, data and AI 

To successfully deploy AI within the bank, Barclays is first focusing on its cloud and data initiatives, the CEO said, “if these things are not standardized, then you add huge complexity” to AI initiatives. 

The bank had nearly 89% of all its data and applications on the cloud by the end of 2025, compared with 75% two years ago, Venkatakrishnan said. Barclays works with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services for its public needs, and has a hybrid private cloud with cloud provider HPE GreenLake. 

The bank has been working on its cloud and data platforms for years, he said, adding that “with cloud infrastructure and data platforms in place, we are now able to deploy AI at scale.” 

Existing efficiencies and new offerings 

The bank continues to find efficiency in multiple processes in which it has deployed AI, Venkatakrishnan said.  

The bank rolled out GitLab’s AI co-pilot to 19,000 developers, which has made coding processes 15% faster, he said. 

“We are one of the largest users of Microsoft Copilot in the financial services industry, with around 90% of our colleagues on the system,” Venkatakrishnan said. “In 2025 alone, this saved our teams more than 1 million hours of work.” 

Barclays aims to launch a conversational AI chatbot for its U.S. based consumers this year, adding that “this accelerates customer query responses by 95% and enables more personalized service.” 

Barclays also aims to deploy AI tools to better help its risk analysts in generating reports and analyzing data this year, Venkatakrishnan said. “This supports fast and accurate credit decisions.” 

MARKET REACTION: Barclays shares [NYSE: BCS] were down 0.1% and were trading at $26.16 at market close on Feb 10. 

Register here for the inaugural FinAi Banking Summit, taking place March 2-3 in Denver. View the full event agenda here.