Banks are rushing to recruit AI leadership – but how will the tech be implemented?

Both regulators and clients could motivate banks to adopt artificial intelligence for greater efficiency gains in the coming years, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) executive has predicted, adding the trend could intensify the global race to embrace the cutting-edge technology.
Over the past few months, multinational banks have approached AWS about how to grow their business in innovative ways, said Shaown Nandi, vice-president of technology at the US cloud computing giant, in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
Though AI has already triggered massive lay-offs in the financial sector, industry surveys show the overall integration rate of the technology in the sector remains low.
Nandi said that based on his conversations with financial services providers, organisations were seeking ways to integrate AI into their services and provide customers with financial information as quickly as possible.
“All of these companies think about how AI can help them achieve outcomes for their end customers more quickly … and they want to do it within their existing budget,” he said.
Banking giants Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings both made announcements recently that they would be replacing thousands of jobs with AI.
The financial sector was an early adopter of AI, as lenders had a good understanding of how to use AI for data management and automating workflows for compliance, according to Nandi.
He said that he also expected regulators would join the push for AI adoption in the coming years.
“I think you’re going to see an interesting change ... [where] regulators [may] ask banks and other companies why they’re not using AI for certain tasks, to help them get to faster accuracy and better processing.”

But Nandi said he remained optimistic about hiring trends, adding that he expected AI would free people from tedious tasks, and that companies which sought to innovate and grow would continually invest in talent.
Amid a boom in recruitment for those with specialised AI knowledge, efforts to integrate the technology within the banking system remain low.
According to a survey by MSCI, the number of executive committees reporting that they had an AI expert on their boards increased from 15 per cent in January 2022 to 25 per cent in June 2025.
However, just 14 per cent of boards reported that they had effectively integrated AI expertise over the same period of time.
“Many companies felt the pressure to say they’re doing something with AI because they want to show that they’re keeping up,” Nandi said.
He said that companies should focus on specific KPIs related to AI initiatives to avoid unnecessary, skyrocketing costs, and that professionals should continue to think about new ways to consistently apply AI to improve themselves and their firms.
Nandi said one of the biggest challenges moving forward would be for financial firms to maintain the pace of learning and innovation, instead of simply adopting every new AI model.
AI models are evolving rapidly, with as little as 1.5 days between new model releases by Chinese and US developers, according to the technology-focused industry service platform QbitAI.