Natwest boosts AI strategy with AWS and Accenture
Natwest Group has announced a five-year collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and consultancy Accenture to accelerate its bank-wide data and AI transformation, ahead of its half-year earnings release scheduled for July 25.
The agreement forms part of the group’s broader strategy to simplify its operations and offer a more personalised customer experience.
By consolidating data currently housed across multiple systems into a central platform, the bank aims to improve service speed and product delivery.
“This collaboration with Accenture and AWS is key to helping us progress the transformation of Natwest as we become a simpler, more technology and data-driven bank”, said Paul Thwaite, Natwest Group chief executive.
“Equipped with high-quality data, we can continue to quietly revolutionise how we serve our customers through AI and other technologies”, he claimed.
The project is also expected to improve back-end operations, such as onboarding times and internal risk or regulatory reporting.
Natwest did not disclose the project’s cost but said the goal is to make its 20m customer relationships more responsive and data-driven.
The bank has declined to comment on potential job reductions, despite industry members suggesting workforce changes were not a primary focus.
Sector-wide digital race
Natwest’s overhaul comes as UK lenders race to modernise amid rising competition from fintechs and pressure on traditional revenue sources due to falling interest rates.
Rivals like Lloyds Banking Group have recently expanded their own AI and cloud infrastructure, including migrating core systems to Google Cloud and rolling out multiple generative AI tools across the business.
The 2018 TSB outage served as a cautionary tale around the operational dangers of major migrations.
Meanwhile, regulators have also raised concerns, with the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority warning that an increased reliance on a handful of cloud providers could create systemic vulnerabilities.