AI in Banking: HSBC Announces Partnership with Google Cloud

HSBC’s global operations are about to get an AI injection.

The British banking giant has just signed a deal with Google Cloud to deploy AI across its global operations, with the partnership initially focus on three priority areas:

1. Personalised wealth management support
2. Financial crime risk management
3. AI-empowered decision making for frontline staff

The multi-year deal will see teams from both companies work on new AI-powered tools which will enhance the personalisation of HSBC’s operations. The bank expects the partnership to support more than 200 new AI use cases over the next two years.

Engineering teams from Google Cloud and Google DeepMind will work on the collaboration, meaning HSBC will gain access to the latest agentic capabilities Google has to offer, from Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. 

“Our partnership with HSBC is a blueprint for the future of the financial services industry," says Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

“By accelerating AI adoption built with Gemini, our Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, forward-deployed engineers and Google DeepMind’s research expertise, HSBC is building a more intelligent, resilient and responsive bank that can create meaningful value for its customers.”

The partnership aims to simplify existing processes at the bank, in addition to the identification and prioritisation of initiatives which hold estimated promises of high returns. 

HSBC estimates that the initiatives could reach upwards of US$100m via direct revenue gains, or “wider efficiency improvements”. 

Currently, HSBC estimates that more than 600 HSBC applications run on Google Cloud. 

Georges Elhedery, Group CEO at HSBC, notes: “AI is becoming one of the defining technologies of our time, allowing us to create a personalised experience for each customer, delivered in real time and at scale, while keeping human judgement, decision-making, and accountability at the core. 

“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.”

Three focus areas have been identified as an initial priority for the partnership. 

Wealth management will become more personalised, with AI-driven insights informing relationship managers to provide tailored, real-time advice to clients in a secure manner, at every stage of the journey. 

Additionally, HSBC will use Gen AI alongside agentic AI to improve financial crime and risk management. 

This twofold approach will see architecture built in the financial crime department which aims to detect risk at an earlier stage, not only actively preventing harm but also bringing a more “seamless” experience for customers, the bank says. 

When a risk is detected, HSBC expects that it will be able to intervene twice as fast, applicable across the near one billion transactions monitored for financial crime by the bank monthly. 

Lastly, staff members at the global bank will receive the help of an AI-powered assistant designed to “supercharge” frontline staff, it says. 

By reducing time spent on administrative tasks and client meeting preparation time, staff are saving hours as their work is cut down to a few minutes, the bank states. 

Additionally, the assistant will work to codify regulatory procedures into an AI structure that bankers can use to inform effective decision-making. 

By including staff in its priorities for the use of AI, HSBC says faster insights can be delivered with a personalised human touch, while “keeping human judgement at the centre”.