LONDON — British banking giant HSBC announced Wednesday that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Google Cloud, the tech division owned by Alphabet Inc., with the goal of dramatically expanding the bank’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
The move is the latest in a series of steps by HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery to harness the power of AI — technology capable of processing enormous volumes of data and automating work that was previously handled by human employees. The partnership reflects a broader trend of financial institutions worldwide rushing to integrate AI as competition in the technology space intensifies.
According to HSBC, the collaboration is expected to allow the bank to deploy AI across 200 additional tasks within the next two years. The bank already runs 600 applications on Google Cloud and will now gain access to Google’s Gemini AI model.
Engineering teams from both Google Cloud and Google DeepMind will work alongside HSBC to pinpoint high-priority projects, each of which could potentially generate more than $100 million in revenue gains or cost savings.
The partnership will concentrate on three key areas: providing personalized support for wealth management clients, strengthening financial crime risk management, and equipping frontline employees with AI tools to spend less time on administrative work and meeting preparation.
The announcement follows comments Elhedery made in May, when he encouraged employees to embrace AI while also cautioning that the technology would “destroy certain jobs and create new jobs.”
In a statement, Elhedery said: “A partnership like this one with Google Cloud helps us empower our colleagues with the tools they need to be future-ready, and supports our work in building a simple, agile, faster, and more personal HSBC.”
