Gemini inside a proprietary stack: Starling builds customer-facing AI tools on its own banking platform using Google Gemini on Google Cloud, rolling them into one agentic assistant, while cutting roles to fund more AI.
How is Starling using AI?
Starling's flagship AI product is Starling Assistant, which Starling calls the UK's first agentic AI financial assistant from a bank: launched in March 2026 for personal accounts and in August 2026 for all business customers, it takes voice or text requests and carries out tasks such as setting up savings Spaces. It is built with Google Gemini on Google Cloud. Starling, with 6.2 million platform accounts at 31 March 2026, is cutting 130 jobs while it invests more in AI.
Category
Neobank
Founded
2014
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Licence and supervision
UK bank (PRA/FCA): Starling Bank Limited, a fully licensed and regulated UK bank; group holding company Starling Group Holdings Limited. Also sells its core banking platform as software through Engine by Starling.
Scale
6.2 million Group platform accounts, as of 31 March 2026 (FY26 results)
Flagship platform
Starling Assistant
AI leadership
Raman Bhatia · Harriet Rees · Catherine Britton · Bernadette Smith
- Starling Assistant, launched 20 March 2026, responds to voice and natural-language prompts and carries out banking tasks on the customer's behalf; Starling says it is opt-in and customer data stays in Starling's Google Cloud environment and is not used for training.
- Starling put AI in customers' hands in stages: Spending Intelligence (June 2025) answers natural-language questions about spending, and Scam Intelligence (October 2025) analyses images of marketplace ads and messages for scam signs; both are built with Google Gemini on Google Cloud.
- On 24 August 2026 Starling launched a business version of Starling Assistant to all business customers, able to move a share of earnings into a tax Space on command and to flag possible invoice fraud.
- From 20 August 2026 Starling began releasing AI 'Smart tools' inside the assistant every week for the rest of 2026, with customers invited to request tools for its AI team to build.
- In July 2026 Starling said it would cut 130 jobs, 3% of its workforce, while continuing to hire tech and AI engineers, as it invests more heavily in AI to push down costs.
- FY26 (year to 31 March 2026): profit before tax £217.1 million (FY25: £223.4 million), revenue £887.4 million (FY25: £940.0 million), Group platform accounts 6.2 million; Engine by Starling revenue grew 25%.
- The FCA fined Starling £28,959,426 in October 2024 over financial sanctions screening failures and breaches of a restriction on opening accounts for high-risk customers.
What is Starling Assistant?
Starling Assistant is an in-app agentic AI financial assistant launched to personal current account customers on 20 March 2026 and to all business customers on 24 August 2026. It responds to voice and natural language and can carry out banking tasks such as setting up saving goals and Spaces, organising bill payments and ring-fencing tax, and it brings together Starling's earlier Spending Intelligence and Scam Intelligence tools. It is built with Google Gemini on Google Cloud; Starling says use is opt-in and data stays in its Google Cloud environment and is not used for training.[3][8][7]
What has Starling done on AI, and when?
- Aug 24, 2026
Starling Assistant for business[8]
The agentic assistant launches to all business customers, with tax ring-fencing on command, invoice-fraud checks and Making Tax Digital guidance; receipt analysis and invoice sending are planned for later in 2026.
- Aug 20, 2026
Weekly AI 'Smart tools'[7]
Starling starts adding AI Smart tools to Starling Assistant every week for the rest of 2026, starting with tax saving, Making Tax Digital guidance, a spending quiz and a student budget planner.
- Aug 12, 2026
Student account with an AI assistant[6]
Starling launches a student current account that includes an AI-powered assistant built for students.
- Jul 3, 2026
130 jobs cut as AI spending rises[9]
Starling tells staff 130 roles, 3% of its workforce, will be made redundant in a restructuring of banking and tech operations, while it continues to hire tech and AI engineers.
- Jun 23, 2026
Colin Bell named Chair[5]
Former HSBC Bank PLC CEO Colin Bell is appointed Chair of Starling Group Holdings and Starling Bank from 1 July 2026, subject to regulatory approval, succeeding David Sproul.
- May 21, 2026
FY26 results cite AI tools and enterprise AI[4]
Profit before tax falls to £217.1 million and revenue to £887.4 million; Starling lists Spending Intelligence, Scam Intelligence and Starling Assistant and says it is deploying AI as an enterprise for operational leverage.
- Mar 20, 2026
Starling Assistant launches for personal accounts[3]
Starling launches an agentic AI assistant that responds to voice and text and carries out tasks such as setting up saving goals and Spaces; it is rolled out to personal current account customers first.
- Oct 27, 2025
Scam Intelligence launches[2]
Customers can upload images of marketplace listings and messages for Gemini-based analysis of scam signs, with guidance in seconds, for personal, joint and business accounts.
- Jun 10, 2025
Spending Intelligence launches[1]
Starling lets customers ask natural-language questions about their spending in the app, built with Google Gemini on Google Cloud; Starling calls it the first phase of its customer-facing AI strategy.
- Oct 2, 2024
FCA fines Starling £29m[10]
The FCA fines Starling Bank £28,959,426 after its automated sanctions screening had, since 2017, checked customers against only a fraction of the sanctions list, and after it opened over 54,000 accounts for 49,000 high-risk customers in breach of a restriction.
Where does Starling use AI today?
| System | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starling Assistant (personal)[3][7] | Agentic assistant that takes voice or text requests and carries out tasks such as creating Spaces, setting saving goals and organising bill payments; opt-in. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Starling Assistant for business[8] | Launched to all business customers on 24 August 2026: moves a set share of earnings into a tax Space on command and explains Making Tax Digital obligations; receipt analysis and invoice creation are planned for later in 2026. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Spending Intelligence[1] | Natural-language and voice questions about a customer's own spending, answered with graphs and analysis; Gemini interprets the query and Starling's own systems run the analysis. | In production | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Scam Intelligence[2] | Customers upload images of marketplace ads or messages; Gemini models read the context and Starling's own systems give a risk assessment and guidance in seconds. Available to personal, joint and business accounts. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Invoice-fraud checks in Starling Assistant[8] | Business customers can discuss supplier invoices with the assistant, which flags potential scams and advises what to do, such as confirming changed payment details directly. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Weekly Smart tools[7] | Pre-prompted AI tools added to Starling Assistant every week for the rest of 2026 (at least monthly thereafter), including tax saver and a rainy-day saver, with customers invited to request new ones. | Rolling out | Generative & agentic AI |
| Google Gemini and Google Cloud[3][1] | Spending Intelligence, Scam Intelligence and Starling Assistant are all built with Google Gemini models on Google Cloud; Starling says assistant data stays in its Google Cloud environment and is not used for training. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
Use-case links open the tracker's rules-by-use-case matrix: which documents govern each system type.
What has Starling disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Group platform accounts | 6.2 million (FY25: 5.3 million)[4] | Mar 31, 2026 |
| FY26 profit before tax | £217.1 million (FY25: £223.4 million)[4] | Mar 31, 2026 |
| FY26 Group revenue | £887.4 million (FY25: £940.0 million)[4] | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Engine by Starling committed annual recurring revenue | £70 million[4] | May 21, 2026 |
| Jobs cut while increasing AI investment | 130 (3% of workforce)[9] | Jul 3, 2026 |
| Retail and SME customers invited to request Smart tools | Five million[7] | Aug 20, 2026 |
| FCA financial crime fine | £28,959,426[10] | Oct 2, 2024 |
“Agentic AI is the next step in banking and I'm thrilled that Starling's customers will be the first to benefit from this cutting-edge technology.”[3]
Raman Bhatia · Group CEO, Starling · Mar 20, 2026
“It's time to embrace a new era of banking, one that's powered by agentic AI.”[3]
Harriet Rees · Group Chief Information Officer, Starling · Mar 20, 2026
“We are innovating at pace to put the capabilities of AI directly into our customers' hands, while taking Engine by Starling to customers around the world.”[4]
Raman Bhatia · Group CEO, Starling · May 21, 2026
“Starling's financial sanction screening controls were shockingly lax.”[10]
Therese Chambers · Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, FCA · Oct 2, 2024
Who runs AI at Starling?
Which regulators govern Starling's AI?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| UK (BoE / PRA / FCA) | Starling Bank Limited is a UK bank supervised by the PRA and FCA; the FCA fined it £29m in 2024 over sanctions screening, and its customer-facing Gemini tools and agentic Starling Assistant fall under the FCA's AI approach and the PRA's model-risk principles. | FCA AI Update (Apr 2024) PRA SS1/23 2024 BoE/FCA AI survey |
| Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (Canada) | Engine by Starling signed a 10-year agreement to supply its banking platform to Tangerine, a subsidiary of Scotiabank, making Starling a third-party technology provider to a bank supervised in Canada; this is an indirect, vendor relationship, not a Starling licence. |
Linked authorities have a page in the AI Regulation Tracker; the others are named for completeness and not yet tracked.
What does the public record suggest about Starling's AI strategy?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice.
01
One assistant absorbs earlier point tools
Spending Intelligence (2025) and Scam Intelligence (2025) now sit inside Starling Assistant, and Smart tools are added weekly. The product strategy is a single conversational interface rather than separate AI features.
02
Single-vendor model dependency
Every customer-facing AI tool Starling has announced is built with Google Gemini on Google Cloud. That simplifies data residency claims but concentrates model and infrastructure dependence on one provider.
03
AI investment is tied to headcount
The July 2026 restructuring cut 130 roles while Starling kept hiring tech and AI engineers and said it would invest more heavily in AI to reduce costs, after FY26 revenue and profit both fell.
04
Agentic features arrive after a financial-crime fine
The FCA's 2024 fine found sanctions screening had missed most of the list since 2017. Starling's newer AI launches include scam and invoice-fraud checks, but the public record does not say whether AI is used in its sanctions or AML screening.
05
The claims of 'UK-first' are Starling's own
Starling describes Spending Intelligence, Scam Intelligence and Starling Assistant as UK firsts; those descriptions come from Starling's press releases, and no usage or outcome metrics for the assistant have been published.
What is Starling Assistant?
Starling Assistant is Starling's in-app agentic AI financial assistant. It launched for personal current accounts on 20 March 2026 and for all business customers on 24 August 2026. It responds to voice and natural language and can carry out tasks such as setting up saving goals and Spaces or moving a share of earnings into a tax Space. It is built with Google Gemini on Google Cloud, and use is opt-in.
Does Starling use Google Gemini?
Yes. Starling says Spending Intelligence (June 2025), Scam Intelligence (October 2025) and Starling Assistant (March 2026) are built with Google Gemini models running on Google Cloud, with Starling's own systems doing the analysis on customer data. For Starling Assistant, Starling says data stays in its Google Cloud environment and is not used for training.
Is Starling cutting jobs because of AI?
In July 2026 Starling told staff that 130 roles, 3% of its workforce, would be made redundant in a restructuring of banking and tech operations. The Guardian reported the cuts came as Starling invests more heavily in AI to push down costs; Starling said it was continuing to hire tech and AI engineers and reducing duplicate roles.
How does Starling use AI to fight scams?
Scam Intelligence, launched on 27 October 2025, lets customers upload images of marketplace listings or messages; Gemini models read them and Starling's systems return a risk assessment and guidance in seconds. Since August 2026 the business version of Starling Assistant can also flag possible invoice fraud. Starling has not published results for either tool.
Is Starling a bank?
Yes. Starling Bank Limited is a fully licensed UK bank regulated by the PRA and FCA, founded in 2014. It reported 6.2 million Group platform accounts at 31 March 2026 and profit before tax of £217.1 million for FY26. Its Engine by Starling subsidiary sells the same banking platform to other banks as software.
Who regulates Starling?
Starling Bank is a UK bank supervised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. In October 2024 the FCA fined it £28,959,426 over financial sanctions screening failures and breaches of a restriction on opening accounts for high-risk customers. Its AI tools fall under the UK regulators' AI and model-risk expectations.
- Starling launches pioneering AI banking tool in mission to help UK be 'Good with money'
- Starling launches UK-first AI tool to combat scams
- Starling launches UK's first Agentic AI financial assistant
- Starling Delivers Fifth Year of Profitability and Accelerates Global Growth Strategy
- Starling appoints Colin Bell as Chair
- Starling launches Student Account, complete with interest-free overdraft, student perks, and chance to have tuition fees covered
- Starling to release weekly 'smart tools' that supercharge money management for millions of Brits
- Starling launches agentic AI assistant for business
- Starling Bank to cut 130 jobs and boost investment in AI to reduce costs
- FCA fines Starling Bank £29m for failings in their financial crime systems and controls
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