A retail-led UK bank that treats AI as the engine of 'bank-wide simplification': an OpenAI partnership, AI tools for all 60,000 colleagues, a customer assistant (Cora) moving from generative to agentic and voice, and a research office building its own small language models.
How is NatWest using AI?
NatWest Group is the UK bank that has tied AI most explicitly to its operating model. It signed a strategic collaboration with OpenAI on 20 March 2025, the first UK-headquartered bank to do so; gave all 60,000 colleagues AI tools including Microsoft Copilot Chat and an internal GenAI platform; and reports that more than 12,000 engineers used AI to write more than 40% of the bank's code in 2025. For customers, its Cora digital assistant handled 7.1 million conversations in the first half of 2026, 3.8 million of them fulfilled entirely digitally. The bank piloted an agentic spending-insights assistant built on OpenAI models with 25,000 customers, launched a Fraud Triage Agent inside Cora, and on 25 September 2026 announced a trial of a real-time voice-to-voice spending-insights tool powered by its own small language models. It appointed a Chief AI Research Officer (Dr Maja Pantic) in June 2025, had five AI agents live for colleagues by its half-year 2026 results, and says it invested £1.2 billion in technology, data and AI transformation in 2025.
Lead bank
National Westminster Bank Plc
Total assets (group, as reported, Jun 30, 2026)
£745.4bn total assets[19]
Charter
UK bank holding group; authorised by the PRA and regulated by the PRA and FCA
Headquarters
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Flagship platform
Cora and the internal GenAI stack
AI leadership
Paul Thwaite · Scott Marcar · Dr Maja Pantic · Triona O'Keeffe · Dr Paul Dongha · Solange Chamberlain
- OpenAI is the anchor partner: on 20 March 2025 NatWest became the first UK-headquartered bank to work with OpenAI, with direct access to its latest technology; at the time the bank was exploring more than 275 AI projects with around 25 use cases in production. Finextra reported in June 2026 that NatWest already had access to OpenAI's GPT 5.5 cybersecurity model under its agreement.
- Cora is the customer proof point: 12.9 million conversations in 2025 (50% with no human intervention), GenAI in 21 customer journeys by 31 December 2025 (17 added during the year) with around a 20-percentage-point increase in queries resolved without a human compared with the non-GenAI journey, and 7.1 million conversations in H1 2026 (3.8 million fulfilled entirely digitally, up 23% on H1 2025).
- Agentic and voice are the 2026 story: 25,000 customers piloted personalised spending insights in Cora built on OpenAI models, a Fraud Triage Agent has handled nearly 19,000 customer conversations since launch, and a voice-to-voice Spending Insights trial (first through Royal Bank of Scotland) runs on the bank's proprietary small language models.
- Colleagues are the scale story: every one of 60,000 colleagues has AI tools, 271,000 AI learning modules have been completed, colleague usage of AI tools tripled in H1 2026 in Private Banking & Wealth Management, and the bank reports AI call summarisation saving more than 70,000 hours a year from more than 700,000 interactions in Retail plus about 90,000 hours a year from complaint summarisation and AI-generated complaint responses.
- Governance is layered and public: an AI and Data Ethics Code of Conduct, a triage of every AI use case through the AIDE process, an AI Steering Committee, an AI dashboard for the Board Risk Committee from 2026, a bank-wide AI and data ethics accreditation (June 2026) and participation in the FCA's AI Live Testing with an agentic complaints-handling use case.
- Leadership is being reorganised around AI: Dr Maja Pantic joined as first Chief AI Research Officer in June 2025, and Triona O'Keeffe joins in January 2027 as Chief Data and Analytics Officer to lead an expanded data and engineering function reporting to Group CIO Scott Marcar.
- The workforce message is candid: CEO Paul Thwaite said in June 2026 that some existing roles will be delivered by AI while declining to commit on headcount; the February 2026 results slides target a cost:income ratio below 45% in 2028 under a 'leveraging simplification' priority.
- NatWest has put its name in AI distribution channels: in April 2026 it became the first UK bank with an app in ChatGPT (home-buying and re-mortgage guidance), and in September 2026 it co-published principles for agentic commerce with ASB, Bank of America, Capital One, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ING.
What is Cora and the internal GenAI stack?
Cora is NatWest's customer-facing digital assistant: it handled 12.9 million conversations in 2025 (half with no human intervention), had GenAI added to 21 customer journeys by 31 December 2025, and in 2026 gained agentic features, a Fraud Triage Agent and a voice-to-voice spending-insights trial powered by the bank's own small language models. Behind it sit the collaboration with OpenAI (March 2025), an internal GenAI platform and Microsoft Copilot Chat for all colleagues (April 2025), and a Chief AI Research Office building proprietary models. The February 2026 results slides put the roadmap on one page: proprietary small language models, a Fraud Triage Agent in Q2 2026, Cora voice-to-voice in the second half of 2026, and a homebuying agent and fully agentic software development beyond 2026.[9][8][21][2][4][19]
What has NatWest done on AI, and when?
- Sep 25, 2026
Voice-to-voice Spending Insights trial and Fraud Triage Agent[21][22]
NatWest announced a trial of a fully generative audio-visual Spending Insights tool, first through Royal Bank of Scotland and powered by its proprietary small language models, plus a Fraud Triage Agent in Cora that had handled nearly 19,000 customer conversations since launch, alongside an AI Adoption Report finding 57% of its retail customers using AI much more than six months earlier.
- Sep 22, 2026
Co-publishes principles for trusted agentic commerce[20]
NatWest, ASB Bank, Bank of America, Capital One, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ING published joint principles warning that agentic shopping is advancing faster than standards and consumer protections and proposing disclosure when an AI agent is involved in a transaction.
- Jul 31, 2026
H1 2026: five agents live, first customer-facing GenAI in Bankline[19]
The interim results reported 7.1 million Cora conversations in H1 2026, colleague usage of AI tools up threefold and AI-powered client intelligence in Private Banking & Wealth Management, five AI agents live supporting colleagues in core processes and the first customer-facing generative AI capability, launched in Bankline.
- Jul 30, 2026
Triona O'Keeffe named Chief Data and Analytics Officer[18]
NatWest announced that Triona O'Keeffe, CIO for Data & Analytics at the London Stock Exchange Group, will join in January 2027 to lead an expanded function bringing data, AI and engineering together under the Group CIO.
- Jun 22, 2026
Bank-wide AI and data ethics accreditation launched[16]
NatWest launched an accreditation of eight e-learning modules, a half-day collaborative session and practical guidance, built on a University of Edinburgh course first delivered to around 90 staff and now offered to all 60,000 employees.
- Jun 19, 2026
CEO says some roles will be delivered by AI[15]
At a business summit hosted by The Times, Paul Thwaite said roles that currently exist will, to all intents and purposes, be delivered by AI; he would not commit on whether the 60,000-strong workforce would shrink but said it is definitely going to change.
- Jun 2, 2026
NatWest among UK banks with access to OpenAI's cybersecurity model[14]
Finextra reported that OpenAI had offered Lloyds, HSBC and Nationwide access to its GPT 5.5 cybersecurity model, while NatWest and Santander already had access under agreements with OpenAI.
- May 5, 2026
Agentic complaints handling enters FCA AI Live Testing[13]
NatWest's Head of Responsible AI described testing an agentic AI model that investigates complaints across multiple data sources and presents a summarised view to a colleague complaint handler for approval, with performance tracked daily on accuracy, coherence and hallucination.
- May 1, 2026
Q1 2026: four AI agents live for commercial customers' onboarding[12]
The Q1 2026 announcement reported four AI-enabled agents live across onboarding and mandates in Commercial & Institutional with embedded human oversight, and that Cora handled 11% more chats than in Q1 2025, 20% of them by generative AI.
- Apr 30, 2026
First UK bank with an app in ChatGPT[11]
NatWest launched NatWest-branded home-buying and re-mortgage guidance inside ChatGPT, drawing on public NatWest APIs to calculate borrowing, affordability and rates and signposting users to NatWest channels to continue.
- Feb 17, 2026
CIO frames 2026 as the year transformative AI becomes real[10]
Group CIO Scott Marcar wrote that 2025 was about building AI capabilities and 2026 the year the building blocks of transformative AI become a reality, citing a £1.2 billion technology, data and AI investment in 2025 and 25,000 customers due to get an agentic assistant in Cora by the end of the quarter.
- Feb 13, 2026
FY2025 results: AI deployment at scale and a published AI roadmap[7][8]
The 2025 results and slides reported Cora at about 13 million conversations, AI call summarisation saving more than 70,000 hours a year, a Chief AI Research Office building proprietary small language models, a piloted fully agentic software-development approach with a more-than-10x productivity gain, and a roadmap running through a Fraud Triage Agent (Q2 2026), Cora voice-to-voice (H2 2026) and 'Cora: Your Homebuying Agent' beyond 2026. The bank said it had accelerated AI and data transformation through partnerships with OpenAI, AWS and Accenture.
- Dec 3, 2025
NatWest joins the FCA's first AI Live Testing cohort[6]
The FCA named NatWest, Santander, Monzo and others in the first cohort of its AI Live Testing service, with participating firms receiving support from the FCA and its technical partner Advai.
- Jun 11, 2025
First Chief AI Research Officer appointed[5]
NatWest named Dr Maja Pantic, Professor of Affective & Behavioural Computing at Imperial College London, as its first Chief AI Research Officer, with a remit covering multimodal AI against deepfakes, responsible-AI controls and forward-looking research.
- Apr 30, 2025
Internal GenAI platform and Copilot Chat roll out to all colleagues[4]
NatWest began giving all colleagues access to its internal GenAI platform (the AI Digital Enabler for NatWest, described by the bank as an internal version of ChatGPT) and Microsoft Copilot Chat, with a training programme alongside; the then Chief Data and Analytics Officer called it a launchpad for reuse across the bank.
- Mar 20, 2025
First UK bank to collaborate with OpenAI[2][3]
NatWest announced a wide-ranging collaboration with OpenAI covering digital assistants, fraud and scam handling and colleague tools, citing more than 275 AI projects explored, around 25 use cases in production and a 150% improvement in customer satisfaction from Cora+'s GenAI functionality. Finextra reported access to all of OpenAI's products and early access to future tools.
- Jun 10, 2024
Cora+ brings generative AI to the digital assistant[1]
NatWest announced Cora+, an upgrade to its digital assistant developed with IBM's Client Engineering team and introduced during London Tech Week as a 12-week pilot, making it one of the first UK banks to deploy generative AI through a digital assistant. Cora had handled 10.8 million queries in 2023.
Where does NatWest use AI today?
| System | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cora digital assistant with generative AI[9][19][12] | Cora handled 12.9 million conversations in 2025 and 7.1 million in H1 2026; GenAI journeys grew from four to 21 during 2025, lifting queries resolved without human intervention by around 20 percentage points against the equivalent non-GenAI journey. By Q1 2026, 20% of Cora chats were handled by generative AI. | In production | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Agentic spending insights in Cora[10][11][21] | Customers ask natural-language questions about their recent spending in the app; the pilot, underpinned by OpenAI models, was due to reach 25,000 customers by the end of Q1 2026, and a voice-to-voice version on proprietary small language models began trial in September 2026. | Pilot | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Fraud Triage Agent in Cora[21] | Customers worried about a suspicious credit card transaction describe what happened and are routed to the right fraud, scam or dispute team; nearly 19,000 customer conversations had been handled since launch by 25 September 2026. | In production | Fraud detection |
| NatWest app in ChatGPT[11] | Home-buying and re-mortgage guidance inside ChatGPT, using public NatWest APIs for borrowing and rate calculations, with conversations branded as NatWest. | In production | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Internal GenAI platform and Copilot Chat for all colleagues[4][9][17] | Rolled out from April 2025 to the bank's colleagues; the annual report names Copilot Chat and Aiden, an internally developed generative AI tool, and the bank says all 60,000 colleagues have AI tools with 271,000 learning modules completed. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| AI agents for onboarding, mandates and operations[12][19] | Four agents were live across onboarding and mandates in Commercial & Institutional at Q1 2026 and five agents were live supporting colleagues in core processes at H1 2026, with embedded human oversight; 24,000 start-ups were onboarded in Q1 2026 with AI-agent assistance. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Call and complaint summarisation[8][7] | AI call summarisation saved more than 70,000 hours a year from more than 700,000 interactions in Retail; automated summarisation and AI-generated complaint responses save around 90,000 hours a year; 100% of complaint calls in Commercial & Institutional now use AI transcription and summarisation. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Agentic complaints investigation under FCA AI Live Testing[13][6] | An agentic model investigates complaints across multiple data sources and presents a summary to a human complaint handler for approval; the bank plans to move from production-like testing to a live environment. | Pilot | Generative & agentic AI |
| AI coding assistants and agentic software development[17][9][8] | More than 12,000 engineers and coders used AI to write more than 40% of the bank's code in 2025; a fully agentic software-development approach was piloted with a reported more-than-10x productivity gain and is slated to scale beyond 2026. | In production | AI-generated code & coding agents |
| AI-based identity verification for business customers[9] | A new AI-based identification process for approximately one million Commercial & Institutional customers lets them provide identity documents digitally, with AI analytics detecting alterations and biometric facial comparison, cutting completion from days to minutes. | In production | AML / KYC |
| Multimodal AI against deepfakes[5][9] | The Chief AI Research Officer's remit includes multimodal AI (voice or video) to combat deepfakes; the annual report's Group Technology, Innovation and Simplification Committee review cites deepfake detection capabilities among AI workstreams. | Announced | Fraud detection |
| AI and Data Ethics Code of Conduct, AIDE triage and AI oversight[9][17] | Every AI use case is triaged through the AIDE process; an AI Steering Committee reviews ambition and progress; the Board Risk Committee agreed that AI risks would be reported in a consolidated AI dashboard in 2026; the Group Technology, Innovation and Simplification Committee received briefings on AI adoption; and the annual report lists AI as a top risk scenario covering model risk and fraud. | In production | AI governance (general) |
Use-case links open the tracker's rules-by-use-case matrix: which documents govern each system type.
What has NatWest disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Total assets (as reported) | £745.4bn[19] | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Cora conversations, 2025 | 12.9 million; 50% with no human intervention[9] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Cora conversations, H1 2026 | 7.1 million, of which 3.8 million fulfilled entirely digitally (up 23% on H1 2025)[19] | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Cora journeys enhanced with GenAI | 21 (17 added during 2025); all journeys targeted by end-2026[9][8] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Colleagues with AI tools | All 60,000 colleagues; 271,000 AI learning modules completed[17] | Jul 27, 2026 |
| Share of code written with AI, 2025 | More than 40%, by over 12,000 engineers and coders[17] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Hours saved by AI call summarisation (Retail) | More than 70,000 hours a year from more than 700,000 interactions[8] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Hours saved by complaint summarisation and AI-generated responses | Around 90,000 hours a year[7] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Investment in technology, data and AI transformation | £1.2 billion in 2025[10] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| AI projects explored / use cases in production | More than 275 / around 25[2] | Mar 20, 2025 |
| AI agents live for colleagues | Four (Q1 2026), five (H1 2026)[12][19] | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Fraud Triage Agent conversations since launch | Nearly 19,000[21] | Sep 25, 2026 |
| Retail customers using AI much more than six months earlier | 57% (survey of more than 2,400 NatWest customers)[21] | Sep 25, 2026 |
“We now have the potential to accelerate this even further by accessing OpenAI’s newest technologies and expertise.”[2]
Scott Marcar · Group Chief Information Officer · Mar 20, 2025
“If 2025 was about building and deploying leading AI capabilities, 2026 is the year that the building blocks of truly transformative AI become a reality.”[10]
Scott Marcar · Group Chief Information Officer · Feb 17, 2026
“In effect there will be roles that currently exist that absolutely to all intents and purposes [will be] delivered by AI.”[15]
Paul Thwaite · Group Chief Executive Officer · Jun 19, 2026
“Success will not be determined by who adopts AI fastest, but by who adopts it most thoughtfully.”[21]
Dr Maja Pantic · Chief AI Research Officer · Sep 25, 2026
Who runs AI at NatWest?
Dr Maja Pantic
Chief AI Research Officer (first holder, appointed June 2025); formerly Professor at Imperial College London, Samsung AI Research Centre Cambridge and Meta London[5][21]
Triona O'Keeffe
Chief Data and Analytics Officer (joins January 2027; currently CIO for Data & Analytics at the London Stock Exchange Group)[18]
Which regulators govern NatWest's AI?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| UK (BoE / PRA / FCA) | NatWest is a PRA-authorised, PRA/FCA-regulated bank, a participant in the FCA's AI Live Testing for agentic complaints handling, and subject to the PRA's model risk management principles for its own and OpenAI-based models. | PRA SS1/23 FCA FS25/5 2026 BoE/FCA AI survey |
| Basel Committee | Strategic dependence on OpenAI, AWS, Accenture and Google puts the Basel third-party risk principles and BCBS 239 data-aggregation expectations directly on NatWest's AI roadmap. | BCBS Third-Party Risk Principles (Dec 2025) BCBS 239 |
| FSB | NatWest's agentic assistants and shared reliance on a few frontier-model providers fall inside the FSB's AI sound-practices consultation and its third-party risk work. | FSB AI sound practices consultation (June 2026) FSB third-party risk toolkit (2023) |
What does the public record suggest about NatWest's AI strategy?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice.
01
A single frontier-model partner is a concentration question
The OpenAI collaboration gives NatWest early access and bespoke support, and the bank also names AWS, Accenture and Google. As agents move from summarising to acting (fraud triage, onboarding), supervisors' third-party and concentration expectations make the exit and substitution plan part of the AI case.
02
Proprietary small language models are the hedge
Building its own small language models in the Chief AI Research Office, and using them for the voice trial, reads as a way to hold the customer-facing layer in-house while renting frontier capability. Whether they match frontier models on quality is not yet public.
03
Disclosure runs ahead of most UK peers on adoption, behind on cost
NatWest publishes conversation counts, hours saved, code share and agent counts, but not AI spend or headcount effects; the cost:income target below 45% in 2028 and the CEO's remarks on roles leave the labour implication to be inferred.
04
Being inside ChatGPT is a distribution bet
Offering a NatWest app in ChatGPT and co-authoring agentic-commerce principles suggests the bank expects customers to start financial journeys in third-party assistants; its own AI Adoption Report finds 57% of surveyed retail customers using AI much more than six months earlier.
What is NatWest doing with AI?
NatWest runs AI across customers, colleagues and engineering: its Cora assistant handled 7.1 million conversations in H1 2026, five AI agents were live for colleagues at its half-year results, all 60,000 colleagues have AI tools, and engineers used AI to write more than 40% of its code in 2025. It signed a strategic collaboration with OpenAI on 20 March 2025 and employs a Chief AI Research Officer, Dr Maja Pantic, who leads work on proprietary small language models.
Does NatWest partner with OpenAI?
Yes. On 20 March 2025 NatWest announced a collaboration with OpenAI and became the first UK-headquartered bank to do so, with direct access to OpenAI's latest technology. Its agentic spending-insights assistant in Cora is underpinned by OpenAI models, and in April 2026 it became the first UK bank with an app in ChatGPT.
What is Cora at NatWest?
Cora is NatWest's digital assistant. It handled 12.9 million conversations in 2025, with generative AI in 21 customer journeys by 31 December 2025, and 7.1 million in the first half of 2026. In 2026 it gained a Fraud Triage Agent and an agentic spending-insights pilot, and a voice-to-voice version powered by NatWest's own small language models entered trial in September 2026.
Who leads AI at NatWest?
Group CIO Scott Marcar fronts the bank's AI strategy; Dr Maja Pantic is Chief AI Research Officer (appointed June 2025); Dr Paul Dongha is Head of Responsible AI & AI Strategy; and Triona O'Keeffe joins in January 2027 as Chief Data and Analytics Officer to lead an expanded data and engineering function. An AI Steering Committee brings leaders together, and the Board Risk Committee receives AI risk reporting.
Will AI cost jobs at NatWest?
CEO Paul Thwaite said in June 2026 that some existing roles will be delivered by AI, and that the 60,000-strong workforce is definitely going to change, but he would not commit to a headcount reduction. NatWest's February 2026 results targeted a cost:income ratio below 45% in 2028.
How does NatWest govern AI?
NatWest publishes an Artificial Intelligence and Data Ethics Code of Conduct, triages every AI use case through its AIDE process, runs an AI Steering Committee, launched a bank-wide AI and data ethics accreditation in June 2026, and is testing an agentic complaints use case in the FCA's AI Live Testing. Its 2025 annual report lists AI as a top risk scenario and says AI risks would be reported to the Board Risk Committee in a consolidated dashboard in 2026.
- NatWest launches Cora+, the latest generative AI upgrade to the bank's digital assistant
- NatWest & OpenAI collaborate to accelerate cutting-edge AI transformation in support of bank-wide simplification and enhanced customer experience
- NatWest inks collaboration deal with OpenAI
- Deploying new generative AI technology to support our colleagues
- NatWest Appoints Dr Maja Pantic as the Bank's First Chief AI Research Officer
- FCA commences live testing of bank AI applications
- 2025 Annual Results
- FY 2025 Results (equity investor slides, February 2026)
- NatWest Group plc 2025 Annual Report and Accounts
- NatWest boasts of AI benefits
- NatWest becomes first UK bank to launch home-buying guidance in ChatGPT
- NatWest Group plc Q1 Results 2026 – Company Announcement
- Collaborating with the Financial Conduct Authority on testing agentic AI
- OpenAI gives UK banks access to cybersecurity model
- NatWest CEO Thwaite says AI will take some banking jobs
- NatWest launches bank-wide AI ethics accreditation
- Harnessing AI as a core enabler of business strategy
- NatWest appoints Triona O’Keeffe as Chief Data and Analytics Officer
- NatWest Group Interim Results 2026
- Banks warn AI shopping bots raise scam, fraud and data-privacy risks
- NatWest Group first to unveil next generation of AI tools to help customers manage money and receive fraud support
- NatWest unveils AI-powered audio-visual spending insights tool
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