Who leads AI at HSBC?

AI at HSBC is led by David Rice (Chief AI Officer); Mario Shamtani (Chief Technology Officer); Stuart Riley (Group Chief Information Officer). Ownership of AI on the org chart: Chief AI Officer David Rice, since Apr 2026; CTO Mario Shamtani builds the AI platform.

What AI platform does HSBC use?

HSBC Productivity Suite, a staff tool built on large language models, helps HSBC staff summarize, analyze and translate documents. HSBC asked CTO Mario Shamtani in Mar 2026 to build a central AI platform that gives colleagues a range of models.

Which AI models does HSBC use?

HSBC self-hosts Mistral AI's commercial models on its own systems under a Dec 2025 deal and gained Google's Gemini models and agent platform in Jun 2026. HSBC's private bank runs Wealth Intelligence on an OpenAI model.

How many HSBC employees use AI?

HSBC said in May 2026 that 88% of its staff and contractors had access to AI productivity tools and more than 37,000 engineers held AI coding assistant licenses. HSBC has not published how many use them each week.

What return has HSBC reported from AI?

HSBC sits at Piloting because it reports one return it credits to AI alone. More than 20,000 HSBC developers using coding assistants gained a 15% efficiency in time spent coding, a figure reported by Dec 2025 and still on HSBC's AI page in Aug 2026. On rollout, HSBC's 2025 Strategic Report (Feb 2026) said more than 31,000 engineers use an AI coding assistant and about 85% of colleagues can use HSBC Productivity Suite. Georges Elhedery said in Apr 2026 that the tools had reached 170,000 colleagues, and Chief AI Officer David Rice has owned AI adoption since Apr 1, 2026. HSBC falls short of Scaling because it has published no second AI return from another function and no firm-level AI figure. HSBC's $1.7 billion of annualized simplification savings actioned by Aug 2026, against a target raised to $2 billion, come from a restructuring it does not credit to AI. HSBC's onboarding gains come from process redesign only partly enabled by generative AI, and its Google Cloud figure of more than $100 million per project is an estimate.

Verified Nov 9, 2026

HSBC

Piloting

Banking
208,720 employees
Chief AI Officer since Apr 2026
Mistral and Google Gemini
88% with AI tool access (May 2026)

HSBC deploys AI through HSBC Productivity Suite, a staff tool built on large language models, and other AI productivity tools that 88% of its staff and contractors could access in May 2026. More than 37,000 HSBC engineers hold coding assistant licenses, and HSBC uses generative AI in onboarding, financial crime checks, contact centers and wealth advice. HSBC self-hosts Mistral AI models and signed a Google Cloud partnership for Gemini models in Jun 2026. David Rice became HSBC's first Chief AI Officer on Apr 1, 2026.

hsbc.com

Their approach to AI

The platform: HSBC Productivity Suite, a staff tool built on large language models, helps HSBC staff summarize, analyze and translate documents. HSBC asked CTO Mario Shamtani in Mar 2026 to build a central AI platform that gives colleagues a range of models.
The models: HSBC self-hosts Mistral AI's commercial models on its own systems under a Dec 2025 deal and gained Google's Gemini models and agent platform in Jun 2026. HSBC's private bank runs Wealth Intelligence on an OpenAI model.
The reach: HSBC said in May 2026 that 88% of its staff and contractors had access to AI productivity tools and more than 37,000 engineers held AI coding assistant licenses. HSBC has not published how many use them each week.
The catch: HSBC's one return credited to AI alone is a 15% efficiency in coding time. HSBC's $1.7 billion of annualized simplification savings actioned by Aug 2026, against a target raised to $2 billion, come from a restructuring it does not credit to AI, and its Google Cloud figure of more than $100 million per project is an estimate.

Snapshot

Employees: 208,720 FTE; Dec 31, 2025, in 56 countries and territories
Technology budget: About 20% of costsest.; Georges Elhedery, Feb 2026; 2025 operating expenses were $36.4B
AI/ML headcount: Not disclosed; Hiring more than 100 AI specialists for a Singapore center (Jul 2026)
Who owns AI: David Rice, Chief AI Officer; A new role from Apr 1, 2026; reporting line not published
Platform: HSBC Productivity Suite; Staff tool built on large language models; a central multi-model AI platform under CTO Mario Shamtani
Models: Mistral, Google Gemini, OpenAI; HSBC says it assesses a wide range of large language models
Reach: 88% with access; May 2026; 170,000 colleagues reached by Apr 2026
Use cases: 100+ generative AI; Feb 2026; more than 200 new ones planned with Google Cloud over 2 years from Jun 2026

Key findings

HSBC's one published return credited to AI alone is a 15% efficiency in time spent coding for more than 20,000 developers using coding assistants, reported by Dec 2025. HSBC's other AI figures, such as 10 times faster vulnerability patching (Apr 2026), measure speed, not cost or headcount.
HSBC said in May 2026 that 88% of its staff and contractors had access to AI productivity tools, up from about 85% in Feb 2026. More than 37,000 HSBC engineers held AI coding assistant licenses in May 2026, up from more than 31,000 users in Feb 2026, out of 208,720 full-time staff.
HSBC named David Rice, previously chief operating officer of Corporate and Institutional Banking, its first Chief AI Officer from Apr 1, 2026. HSBC also widened CTO Mario Shamtani's remit to building a central AI platform that gives colleagues a range of models.
HSBC self-hosts Mistral AI models on its own systems under a Dec 2025 deal. On Jun 17, 2026 HSBC signed a multi-year Google Cloud partnership for Gemini models that aims at more than 200 new AI use cases in 2 years. HSBC is prioritizing projects it estimates could each return more than $100 million.
HSBC has not tied a job count to AI. Bloomberg reported in Mar 2026 that HSBC was weighing about 20,000 role cuts over 3 to 5 years, and in Oct 2026 HSBC confirmed a consultation on UK wealth jobs that the Financial Times linked to its AI push.

Where HSBC sits

Stage: Piloting
HSBC sits at Piloting because it reports one return it credits to AI alone. More than 20,000 HSBC developers using coding assistants gained a 15% efficiency in time spent coding, a figure reported by Dec 2025 and still on HSBC's AI page in Aug 2026. On rollout, HSBC's 2025 Strategic Report (Feb 2026) said more than 31,000 engineers use an AI coding assistant and about 85% of colleagues can use HSBC Productivity Suite. Georges Elhedery said in Apr 2026 that the tools had reached 170,000 colleagues, and Chief AI Officer David Rice has owned AI adoption since Apr 1, 2026. HSBC falls short of Scaling because it has published no second AI return from another function and no firm-level AI figure. HSBC's $1.7 billion of annualized simplification savings actioned by Aug 2026, against a target raised to $2 billion, come from a restructuring it does not credit to AI. HSBC's onboarding gains come from process redesign only partly enabled by generative AI, and its Google Cloud figure of more than $100 million per project is an estimate.
How the stages are defined
Ownership: Chief AI Officer David Rice, since Apr 2026; CTO Mario Shamtani builds the AI platform
Platform: Hybrid: Wealth Intelligence built in-house; models and cloud bought
Models: Mistral (self-hosted), Google Gemini, OpenAI in the private bank
Hosting: Mistral models self-hosted on HSBC's own systems; Gemini on Google Cloud; multicloud estate with AWS and Microsoft Azure
Reach: 88% of staff and contractors with access (May 2026)

How they deploy

Build the tools, bring in partners for models

HSBC says its approach balances building its own AI solutions with outside partners. HSBC's in-house developers built the private bank's Wealth Intelligence. HSBC licensed Mistral AI's commercial models to self-host in Dec 2025 and added Google's Gemini models and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform in Jun 2026. HSBC said in Dec 2025 that it is continually assessing a wide range of large language models.

Generative AI as the largest technology investment

Georges Elhedery said on Feb 25, 2026 that generative AI is where HSBC's biggest investment in new technology is going. Elhedery set out 3 workstreams: generative AI tools for every colleague, a full redesign of about 50 processes, and AI tools for relationship managers, wealth advisers and contact center staff. The processes HSBC is redesigning include onboarding, know-your-customer checks, fraud detection and credit applications. Elhedery said on Aug 4, 2026 that redesigning processes is where HSBC is putting its AI to work.

Central leadership for AI adoption

HSBC created a Chief AI Officer role in Mar 2026 to give clear enterprise leadership for AI adoption and appointed David Rice from Apr 1, 2026. HSBC gave CTO Mario Shamtani the job of modernizing core platforms, building a central AI platform and leading key strategic partnerships. HSBC said the move comes as it makes generative AI tools available to all staff.

Returns as the bar for new projects

HSBC said in Jun 2026 that Google Cloud and Google DeepMind engineers will help it identify priority AI projects that could each deliver more than $100 million in revenue gains or efficiency improvements. HSBC links AI to its target of a return on tangible equity of 17% or better from 2026 to 2028.

Training staff instead of announcing cuts

Georges Elhedery told HSBC's May 20, 2026 investor day that generative AI will destroy certain jobs and create new ones. Elhedery said his first task is to bring all 200,000 colleagues along with training and tools. In Apr 2026 Elhedery said that using the tools is not optional and that he will monitor usage and the heaviest users.

Deployment model: HSBC runs AI as a hub and spoke model. HSBC's business lines and functions explore and prioritize ideas, and a central hub of an AI Centre of Excellence and Group-level technology and risk teams oversees them. HSBC's AI Review Committee then approves novel use cases. Chief AI Officer David Rice leads enterprise AI adoption, CTO Mario Shamtani builds the central AI platform, and Group CIO Stuart Riley leads technology strategy. HSBC is adding a Global AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore in the second half of 2026, and an AI and Emerging Technology Institute in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2027.
Model providers: HSBC signed a multi-year partnership with Mistral AI on Dec 1, 2025 for Mistral's current and future commercial models, self-hosted on HSBC's internal systems. HSBC is starting with the AI platform its staff use for productivity tasks. HSBC Private Bank's Wealth Intelligence runs on an OpenAI large language model (Sep 2025). Under the Jun 17, 2026 Google Cloud partnership, HSBC gets Google's Gemini models, the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and forward-deployed engineers from Google Cloud and Google DeepMind. HSBC piloted Harvey's legal AI platform in its Global Legal function from Jan 2026. HSBC has not named the vendor behind its coding assistants.
Data and infrastructure: HSBC runs about 9,000 applications and plans to retire 3,000 non-strategic ones between 2025 and 2028. HSBC retired 1,165 in 2025 and about half of the planned total by Aug 2026. Georges Elhedery said in Feb 2026 that HSBC has moved past a cloud-first strategy to placing each application where it runs best, in public cloud, private cloud or on premises. HSBC named AWS a long-term cloud provider in Jul 2020 and uses Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure alongside it. More than 600 HSBC applications run on Google Cloud (Jun 2026). Mistral models run self-hosted on HSBC's own systems, which Mistral said in Dec 2025 keeps HSBC in full ownership of its data.

Platforms and internal tools

HSBC Productivity Suite
HSBC Productivity Suite is HSBC's staff tool built on large language models that helps colleagues summarize, analyze and translate documents and generate insights. HSBC said in Dec 2025, without naming the platform, that self-hosted Mistral AI models would improve the AI platform its colleagues use for productivity tasks. HSBC listed tasks such as tailored client communications, marketing campaigns, procurement risk and savings reviews, lending document analysis and translation.
Users
About 85% of colleagues with access (Feb 2026); 88% of staff and contractors with access (May 2026); 170,000 colleagues reached (Apr 2026)
Source
Central AI platformIn development from Mar 2026
HSBC's central AI platform, which CTO Mario Shamtani was asked to build in Mar 2026, is meant to let colleagues reach a range of models in one place. HSBC has not said when it will launch or how it relates to HSBC Productivity Suite.
Source
AI coding assistants
HSBC gives engineers AI-enabled coding assistants. Georges Elhedery said in Feb 2026 that the assistants had made unit testing 60% faster and code vulnerability patching 5 times faster, and said in Apr 2026 that patching was 10 times faster than a year earlier.
Users
More than 20,000 developers (by Dec 2025); more than 31,000 engineers (Feb 2026); more than 37,000 licensed (May 2026)
Source
Wealth IntelligenceSep 2025
Wealth Intelligence is HSBC Private Bank's in-house generative AI platform for investment advisers and product specialists, which analyzes the bank's research and outside news feeds across more than 10,000 data sources. HSBC launched Wealth Intelligence in Hong Kong and Singapore and plans to extend it to more markets and to product screening.
Models
OpenAI large language model
Source
Dynamic Risk Assessment
Dynamic Risk Assessment is the AI system HSBC co-developed with Google to check about 980 million transactions a month for financial crime; HSBC piloted it in 2021. Dynamic Risk Assessment covered about 95% of HSBC's customer base in the first quarter of 2026. HSBC reports 4 times better detection of suspicious activity, 2 times faster investigation and about 70% fewer false positives than before the system arrived.
Source

Vendors and partners

Mistral AIDec 2025
Model provider; self-hosted commercial models on HSBC systems · The multi-year partnership covers Mistral's current and future commercial models, with HSBC and Mistral applied AI, science and engineering teams building generative AI solutions together.
Google Cloud and Google DeepMind2021 (Dynamic Risk Assessment pilot); Jun 2026 (AI partnership)
Gemini models, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and forward-deployed engineers; co-developer of Dynamic Risk Assessment; cloud host for more than 600 HSBC applications · HSBC expects the partnership to enable more than 200 new AI use cases over 2 years, starting with wealth support, financial crime risk and tools for frontline staff.
OpenAIBy Sep 2025
Large language model behind the private bank's Wealth Intelligence
Amazon Web ServicesJul 2020
Long-term public cloud provider · HSBC chose AWS under a multi-year modernization agreement while keeping a multicloud strategy.
Microsoft Azure
Public cloud in HSBC's multicloud strategy · HSBC told CIO Dive in Jul 2020 that it uses Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure alongside AWS.
HarveyJan 2026
Legal AI platform piloted in HSBC's Global Legal function
Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyNov 2026
Academic partner for HSBC's AI and Emerging Technology Institute

Leadership

AI, data and platform leaders

David Rice

Chief AI Officer

David Rice became HSBC's first Chief AI Officer on Apr 1, 2026, with enterprise responsibility for AI adoption, after serving as chief operating officer of Corporate and Institutional Banking. Banking Dive reported that Rice has spent 18 years at HSBC. Specialists at HSBC's Global AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore work alongside Rice (Jul 2026).

Mario Shamtani

Chief Technology Officer

Mario Shamtani is HSBC's Chief Technology Officer. In Mar 2026 HSBC expanded Shamtani's remit to modernizing core platforms, building a central AI platform that gives colleagues a range of models and leading key strategic partnerships.

Stuart Riley

Group Chief Information Officer

Stuart Riley joined HSBC as Group CIO in Feb 2024 and sits on the Group Operating Committee, leading the bank's technology strategy. Riley was previously Co-Chief Information Officer of Citi, where he led cross-functional AI initiatives. Riley has said he expects every HSBC employee to use AI in daily work in the near future.

Doug Robertson

Group Head of Responsible AI

Unconfirmed

Doug Robertson leads safe and responsible AI practice across HSBC, including governance, risk management, AI policy and regulatory delivery. Robertson spent more than a decade at JPMorgan Chase, where he led AI oversight and governance in the Chief Data & Analytics Office.

Steve Albrecht

Co-Chair, AI Review Committee

Steve Albrecht co-chairs HSBC's AI Review Committee, the senior executive group that approves novel AI use cases, and is General Counsel of Digital Legal Services. Albrecht describes the bank's hub and spoke model and its gate from proof of concept to pilot to scaled production.

Executives

Georges Elhedery

Group Chief Executive

Georges Elhedery has been HSBC's Group CEO since Sep 2, 2024, was Group CFO from Jan 2023 to Sep 2024, and earlier co-ran Global Banking and Markets. Elhedery sets out HSBC's 3 generative AI workstreams on results calls and told the May 2026 investor day that AI will destroy some jobs and create others.

Pam Kaur

Group Chief Financial Officer

Pam Kaur became HSBC's Group CFO on Jan 1, 2025 after serving as Group Chief Risk Officer from Jan 2020 and Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer until Dec 2024. Kaur reports HSBC's simplification savings and cost targets. HSBC said in Sep 2026 that Kaur will step down before its 2027 annual general meeting.

AI org map

Chief AI Officer for enterprise adoption, a central platform under the CTO, and a hub and spoke model with the business lines

HSBC created its first Chief AI Officer role in Mar 2026 and appointed David Rice from Apr 1, 2026 to lead AI adoption across the bank. CTO Mario Shamtani took on the central AI platform, core platform modernization and key technology partnerships. Group CIO Stuart Riley sits on the Group Operating Committee, which supports Group CEO Georges Elhedery in running the bank. HSBC's AI Review Committee approves novel AI use cases that business lines submit through a central hub.

HSBC has not published the size of its AI workforce. HSBC's AI work sits with Chief AI Officer David Rice and with CTO Mario Shamtani's technology teams under Group CIO Stuart Riley. HSBC also has an AI Centre of Excellence network within the central hub, and teams in each business line. HSBC is hiring more than 100 AI specialists in natural language processing, data science, AI governance and human-centred design for its Singapore center (Jul 2026). More than 37,000 HSBC engineers held AI coding assistant licenses in May 2026.

Reporting lines

Group Chief Executive
Georges Elhedery
- Group Chief Information Officer
  Stuart Riley
  Group Operating Committee member leading technology strategy
  - Chief Technology Officer
    Mario Shamtani
    Central AI platform, core platform modernization and strategic partnerships; the line to the Group CIO is inferred, not published
- Group Chief Financial Officer
  Pam Kaur
Chief AI Officer
David Rice
Enterprise AI adoption since Apr 1, 2026; HSBC has not published the reporting line
- Global AI Centre of Excellence, Singapore
  More than 100 AI specialists who work alongside David Rice; opening in the second half of 2026; the reporting line is inferred
AI Review Committee
Steve Albrecht, co-chair
Senior executives who approve novel AI use cases; AI Review Councils sit across the organization (first half of 2025)
Group Responsible AI
Doug Robertson
AI governance, risk management, policy and regulatory delivery; reporting line not published

HSBC's senior management page, last updated Jan 1, 2026, lists Group CIO Stuart Riley on the Group Operating Committee and predates the Chief AI Officer role. HSBC has not said whether David Rice reports to Georges Elhedery or sits on the Group Operating Committee, nor whom Mario Shamtani reports to.

Where the AI workforce sits

Engineers with AI coding assistants
Licensed users in May 2026, up from more than 31,000 users in Feb 2026.
37,000+
Frontline wealth colleagues with an AI tool
Activated users in May 2026, with real-time access to more than 10,000 market and investment datapoints.
~2,800
AI specialists in the Global AI Centre of Excellence, Singapore
Roles HSBC is creating from Jul 2026; HSBC has not published the size of its AI workforce elsewhere.
100+

Named people

Executive sponsors

Georges Elhedery
Group Chief Executive
Pam Kaur
Group Chief Financial Officer

AI adoption

More than 100 AI specialists being hired in Singapore (Jul 2026)

David Rice
Chief AI Officer · Since Apr 1, 2026

Technology and the AI platform

More than 37,000 engineers with AI coding assistants (May 2026)

Stuart Riley
Group Chief Information Officer
Mario Shamtani
Chief Technology Officer · Builds the central AI platform

AI governance

Steve Albrecht
Co-Chair, AI Review Committee
Doug Robertson
Group Head of Responsible AI

Business-line AI

Lavanya Chari
Head of wealth and premier solutions · Spoke for Wealth Intelligence at its Sep 2025 launch
David Liao
Co-CEO, Asia and Middle East · Spoke for the Hong Kong AI institute (Nov 2026)

Use cases

HSBC has more than 100 generative AI solutions in use (Feb 2026) among more than 600 AI use cases of all kinds. HSBC's use cases span coding, onboarding and know-your-customer checks, financial crime monitoring, contact centers, credit write-ups, client servicing and wealth advice. HSBC has published a return it credits to AI alone for one use case: AI coding assistants, with a 15% efficiency in time spent coding for more than 20,000 developers. HSBC's onboarding figures come from process redesign only partly enabled by generative AI, and its financial crime figures measure detection and speed, not cost. HSBC has published no firm-level AI return; its $1.7 billion of annualized simplification savings actioned by Aug 2026, against a target raised to $2 billion, come from a broader restructuring.

Use case	Area	Status	ROI
AI coding assistants HSBC engineers use AI-enabled coding assistants. Georges Elhedery said in Feb 2026 that unit testing ran 60% faster and vulnerability patching 5 times faster, and said in Apr 2026 that patching was 10 times faster than a year earlier.	Technology	In production	15% efficiency in time spent coding for 20,000+ developers using assistants (Dec 2025)Source
HSBC Productivity Suite HSBC colleagues use HSBC Productivity Suite, a tool built on large language models, to summarize, analyze and translate documents and draft text. HSBC said in Dec 2025 that it is adding self-hosted Mistral models to its staff productivity platform for client communications, marketing, procurement and lending analysis.	Firmwide	In production
AI-assisted client onboarding and know-your-customer checks HSBC launched AI-assisted onboarding across its wholesale businesses within a process redesign it describes as partly enabled by generative AI. HSBC reported about 55% higher productivity in customer due diligence and about 50% less client onboarding time from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2026. HSBC's onboarding Net Promoter Score improved 11% over the same period.	Corporate and Institutional Banking	In production
Dynamic Risk Assessment and transaction monitoring HSBC's AI-driven Dynamic Risk Assessment system covered about 95% of HSBC's customer base in the first quarter of 2026, with 4 times better detection of suspicious activity and about 70% fewer false positives. With Google Cloud, HSBC plans generative and agentic AI that doubles the speed of intervention across nearly 1 billion transactions it monitors each month.	Financial crime	In production
Client servicing assistant HSBC deployed a generative AI assistant to Corporate and Institutional Banking servicing teams that supports 3 million client interactions a year, which HSBC says reduces turnaround times.	Corporate and Institutional Banking	In production
Credit analysis write-ups HSBC uses generative AI to draft credit analysis write-ups from internal and external data sources, which HSBC says shortens the credit application process.	Corporate and Institutional Banking	In production
Contact centre summaries, voice and chatbots HSBC gives UK customer support agents generative AI chat summaries and is developing AI voice and chatbot tools for contact centers to cut hold times and resolve more queries at first contact (May 2026).	Wealth and Personal Banking	In production
Wealth Intelligence and frontline wealth AI HSBC Private Bank's Wealth Intelligence, launched in Hong Kong and Singapore in Sep 2025, summarizes research and news from more than 10,000 data sources for advisers. HSBC said in May 2026 that an AI tool giving real-time access to more than 10,000 market and investment datapoints had about 2,800 activated frontline users.	Wealth	In production
Decision assistant for frontline staff HSBC's AI decision assistant, used by thousands of staff, cuts administrative work and client meeting preparation from hours to minutes. HSBC is expanding the assistant with Google Cloud and building regulatory procedures into an AI framework for bankers (Jun 2026).	Frontline banking	In production
Personalized wealth support with Google Cloud HSBC plans to give relationship managers AI-driven insights for proactive, personalized client support as one of the first areas of its Jun 2026 Google Cloud partnership.	Wealth	Announced
Harvey legal AI HSBC's Global Legal function began a pilot of Harvey's legal AI platform in Jan 2026 as part of a move to a more AI-enabled legal operating model.	Legal	Pilot
Agentic treasury and AI-enabled payments HSBC's Singapore Global AI Centre of Excellence will start with wealth conversations, agentic treasury solutions and AI-enabled digital payments that can be scaled across the network (Jul 2026).	Global Payments and Treasury	Announced

Adoption

HSBC reports adoption as access, not weekly use. About 85% of HSBC colleagues could use HSBC Productivity Suite in Feb 2026. Georges Elhedery said in Apr 2026 that the tools had reached 170,000 colleagues on the way to more than 200,000, and HSBC reported in May 2026 that 88% of staff and contractors had access permissions. HSBC's coding assistant count rose from more than 20,000 developers (by Dec 2025) to more than 31,000 engineers (Feb 2026) and more than 37,000 licensed users (May 2026). Elhedery said in Apr 2026 that using the tools is not optional and that he will monitor usage, but HSBC has not published active or weekly user counts.

By the numbers

Coding time efficiency from AI assistants: 15%; More than 20,000 developers using coding assistants; reported by Dec 2025 and on HSBC's AI page in Aug 2026

Colleagues enabled with AI productivity tools: 88%; Staff and contractors with access permissions, May 2026 investor day; about 85% in Feb 2026

Engineers with AI coding assistants: 37,000+; Licensed users, May 2026; more than 31,000 used one in Feb 2026

Generative AI solutions in use: 100+; 2025 Strategic Report, Feb 2026; HSBC counts more than 600 AI use cases of all kinds

Technology share of costs: ~20%; Georges Elhedery's rough figure, Feb 2026, against $36.4B of 2025 operating expenses

Employees: 208,720; Full-time equivalent staff at Dec 31, 2025

Rollout, first pilot to today

Jul 2020
HSBC named AWS a long-term cloud provider under a multi-year deal and kept Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure in a multicloud strategy.
CIO Dive
Sep 2025
HSBC Private Bank launched Wealth Intelligence, an in-house generative AI platform on an OpenAI model, in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Asset
Dec 2025
HSBC signed a multi-year deal to self-host Mistral AI models and said more than 20,000 developers were using coding assistants with a 15% efficiency in coding time.
ITPro
Feb 2026
HSBC's 2025 Strategic Report said it had more than 100 generative AI solutions in use, about 85% of colleagues could use HSBC Productivity Suite and more than 31,000 engineers used an AI coding assistant.
2025 Strategic Report
Apr 2026
David Rice took up the new Chief AI Officer role, and Georges Elhedery said HSBC's productivity tools had reached 170,000 colleagues.
HSBC
May 2026
HSBC told its investor day that 88% of staff and contractors had access to AI productivity tools and more than 37,000 engineers held AI coding assistant licenses.
2026 investor day presentation
Jun 2026
HSBC signed a multi-year Google Cloud partnership for Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, aiming at more than 200 new AI use cases in 2 years.
Reuters
Jul 2026
HSBC announced a Global AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore with more than 100 AI specialist roles, opening in the second half of 2026.
HSBC

Economics & controls

Spend and ROI

Technology budget

HSBC does not publish a technology budget. Georges Elhedery said on Feb 25, 2026 that technology is about 20% of HSBC's costs, against 2025 operating expenses of $36.4 billion. Elhedery said generative AI is where the biggest new technology investment goes. HSBC targets about 1% cost growth in 2026 on a target basis and says AI investment sits inside that cost base.

What AI itself costs

HSBC has not disclosed what it spends on AI, on Mistral or Google Cloud licenses, or on model usage. Georges Elhedery said in Feb 2026 that HSBC's cost base sets aside investment for generative AI efficiencies alongside digital capabilities and new hires.

Reported ROI

HSBC has reported one return it credits to AI alone: a 15% efficiency in time spent coding for more than 20,000 developers using coding assistants, reported by Dec 2025. HSBC's other AI figures measure speed or quality: 60% faster unit testing, 10 times faster vulnerability patching and 4 times better detection of suspicious activity. HSBC also reports about 55% higher productivity in customer due diligence, which it places inside a process redesign partly enabled by generative AI. HSBC said in Jun 2026 that it would prioritize Google Cloud projects estimated to return more than $100 million each; that figure is an estimate, not a result.

Simplification savings

HSBC's organizational simplification program had actioned $1.7 billion of annualized savings by Aug 4, 2026 against an original $1.5 billion target. HSBC raised the target to $2 billion by the end of 2026. HSBC attributes the savings to its restructuring, including a 15% net cut in managing director positions and about 4,400 fewer non-technology full-time staff in 2025, while technology staff rose by about 1,800. HSBC does not credit the savings to AI.

Headcount

HSBC had 208,720 full-time equivalent staff at Dec 31, 2025. Bloomberg reported on Mar 19, 2026 that HSBC was weighing about 20,000 role cuts, about 10% of the workforce, over 3 to 5 years as it adopts AI. Bloomberg said the cuts would fall mainly on non-client-facing roles in global service centers and that the plans were at an early stage, with no decisions made. The Financial Times reported cuts to about half of HSBC's UK wealth management and specialist roles and about 70% of its financial advisers, part of a push to use AI with wealthy clients. HSBC said in Oct 2026 that it was in a consultation period.

Governance and risk

AI Review Committee and councils

HSBC's AI Review Committee, a group of senior executives co-chaired by Steve Albrecht, approves novel AI use cases. In the first half of 2025 HSBC added AI Review Councils across the organization and refined AI lifecycle management to align with its risk frameworks. A generative AI use case enters a governance review before pilot, pilots run with limited numbers of users, and HSBC monitors live performance once a tool reaches scaled production.

Human accountability

HSBC's stated AI vision keeps human judgement, decision-making and accountability at the core, and Georges Elhedery said in Feb 2026 that HSBC builds AI so that the bank can review, monitor and audit everything the AI does. HSBC plans to keep generative AI tools with staff serving customers for now, and Elhedery said customers could use such tools directly in a few years.

Model risk and data

HSBC's 2025 Strategic Report says new technologies, including AI, are driving a need for stronger model risk controls. The report says HSBC continues to strengthen Group-wide AI oversight, governance, lifecycle management and risk frameworks for AI built in-house or supplied by third parties. HSBC's Principles for the Ethical Use of Data and AI are public, and HSBC runs Group-wide mandatory training on responsible AI.

Self-hosting and outside clouds

HSBC runs Mistral AI's models self-hosted on its own systems, while its Google Cloud partnership puts Gemini and agent workloads on Google's infrastructure. HSBC has not published how it splits data between the two or where the OpenAI model behind Wealth Intelligence runs.

Fraud in an agentic world

Georges Elhedery said on Nov 2, 2026 that a key focus of HSBC's recent research is defending against new fraud methods in the era of agentic AI. Fraud defence is one of the first areas for HSBC's AI and Emerging Technology Institute with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, alongside AI safety and post-quantum cryptography.

Recent signals

Nov 2, 2026
Georges Elhedery said at Hong Kong FinTech Week that HSBC will set up an AI and Emerging Technology Institute in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in the first half of 2027. The institute will focus on AI upskilling, AI safety, AI-enabled fraud detection and post-quantum cryptography.
The Standard
Oct 27, 2026
HSBC reported third-quarter pre-tax profit of $9.6 billion and reaffirmed its 2026 to 2028 targets, with no new AI figures in the earnings release.
AFP via Malay Mail
Oct 7, 2026
HSBC said it was in a consultation period after the Financial Times reported cuts to about 70% of UK wealth financial advisers and half of management and specialist roles in a push to use AI.
AFP via Macau Business
Oct 6, 2026
Evident's 2026 AI Index placed HSBC 11th among 50 banks, down from 8th, and first among UK banks.
Resultsense
Aug 4, 2026
HSBC raised its simplification savings target to $2 billion at its interim results, and Georges Elhedery said redesigning about 50 processes is where HSBC is putting its AI to work.
Interim results call transcript
Jul 27, 2026
HSBC announced a Global AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore with more than 100 AI specialist roles, starting with wealth conversations, agentic treasury and AI-enabled payments.
HSBC
Jun 17, 2026
HSBC signed a multi-year Google Cloud partnership for Gemini models, the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and Google DeepMind engineers, aiming at more than 200 new AI use cases and projects estimated at more than $100 million each.
Reuters
May 20, 2026
HSBC's investor day reported 88% of colleagues enabled with AI productivity tools and more than 37,000 engineers with AI coding assistants, and Georges Elhedery told staff that generative AI will destroy certain jobs and create new ones.
2026 investor day presentation
Apr 2, 2026
Georges Elhedery said HSBC's generative AI productivity tools had reached 170,000 colleagues and that code vulnerability patching was 10 times faster than a year earlier.
HSBC
Mar 23, 2026
HSBC named David Rice its first Chief AI Officer from Apr 1, 2026 and expanded CTO Mario Shamtani's remit to a central AI platform.
HSBC
Mar 19, 2026
Bloomberg reported that HSBC was weighing about 20,000 role cuts, about 10% of its workforce, over 3 to 5 years as it adopts AI.
The Standard, citing Bloomberg
Feb 25, 2026
Georges Elhedery said generative AI is where HSBC's biggest new technology investment goes, with about 85% of colleagues enabled and 31,000 engineers already enabled with coding assistants.
Annual results 2025 call transcript
Jan 20, 2026
HSBC began a pilot of Harvey's legal AI platform in its Global Legal function.
HSBC
Dec 1, 2025
HSBC and Mistral AI signed a multi-year partnership to run Mistral's commercial models self-hosted on HSBC's internal systems.
HSBC

Quick answers

How does HSBC deploy AI?: HSBC deploys AI through HSBC Productivity Suite, a staff tool built on large language models, and other AI productivity tools that 88% of its staff and contractors could access in May 2026. More than 37,000 HSBC engineers hold coding assistant licenses, and HSBC uses generative AI in onboarding, financial crime checks, contact centers and wealth advice. HSBC self-hosts Mistral AI models and signed a Google Cloud partnership for Gemini models in Jun 2026. David Rice became HSBC's first Chief AI Officer on Apr 1, 2026.
What does HSBC use AI for?: HSBC has more than 100 generative AI solutions in use (Feb 2026) among more than 600 AI use cases of all kinds. HSBC's use cases span coding, onboarding and know-your-customer checks, financial crime monitoring, contact centers, credit write-ups, client servicing and wealth advice. HSBC has published a return it credits to AI alone for one use case: AI coding assistants, with a 15% efficiency in time spent coding for more than 20,000 developers. HSBC's onboarding figures come from process redesign only partly enabled by generative AI, and its financial crime figures measure detection and speed, not cost. HSBC has published no firm-level AI return; its $1.7 billion of annualized simplification savings actioned by Aug 2026, against a target raised to $2 billion, come from a broader restructuring.
Who leads AI at HSBC?: AI at HSBC is led by David Rice (Chief AI Officer); Mario Shamtani (Chief Technology Officer); Stuart Riley (Group Chief Information Officer). Ownership of AI on the org chart: Chief AI Officer David Rice, since Apr 2026; CTO Mario Shamtani builds the AI platform.
What AI platform does HSBC use?: HSBC Productivity Suite, a staff tool built on large language models, helps HSBC staff summarize, analyze and translate documents. HSBC asked CTO Mario Shamtani in Mar 2026 to build a central AI platform that gives colleagues a range of models.
Which AI models does HSBC use?: HSBC self-hosts Mistral AI's commercial models on its own systems under a Dec 2025 deal and gained Google's Gemini models and agent platform in Jun 2026. HSBC's private bank runs Wealth Intelligence on an OpenAI model.
How many HSBC employees use AI?: HSBC said in May 2026 that 88% of its staff and contractors had access to AI productivity tools and more than 37,000 engineers held AI coding assistant licenses. HSBC has not published how many use them each week.
What return has HSBC reported from AI?: HSBC sits at Piloting because it reports one return it credits to AI alone. More than 20,000 HSBC developers using coding assistants gained a 15% efficiency in time spent coding, a figure reported by Dec 2025 and still on HSBC's AI page in Aug 2026. On rollout, HSBC's 2025 Strategic Report (Feb 2026) said more than 31,000 engineers use an AI coding assistant and about 85% of colleagues can use HSBC Productivity Suite. Georges Elhedery said in Apr 2026 that the tools had reached 170,000 colleagues, and Chief AI Officer David Rice has owned AI adoption since Apr 1, 2026. HSBC falls short of Scaling because it has published no second AI return from another function and no firm-level AI figure. HSBC's $1.7 billion of annualized simplification savings actioned by Aug 2026, against a target raised to $2 billion, come from a restructuring it does not credit to AI. HSBC's onboarding gains come from process redesign only partly enabled by generative AI, and its Google Cloud figure of more than $100 million per project is an estimate.

Open questions

How many HSBC employees use HSBC Productivity Suite and the coding assistants each week, given that HSBC reports access permissions and licenses, not active users?
Whom does Chief AI Officer David Rice report to, and does he sit on the Group Operating Committee?
What does HSBC spend on AI itself, including Mistral and Google Cloud licenses and model usage?
How much of the 55% productivity gain in customer due diligence and the 50% cut in onboarding time does HSBC credit to AI rather than to the wider process redesign, in cost or headcount?
What do HSBC Productivity Suite, the Corporate and Institutional Banking servicing assistant, Wealth Intelligence, Dynamic Risk Assessment and the frontline decision assistant return in cost, revenue or losses avoided, given that HSBC has published no return for them?
Which Google Cloud projects have cleared HSBC's bar of more than $100 million each, and what have they returned so far?
Which vendor or model powers HSBC's coding assistants, and where does the OpenAI model behind Wealth Intelligence run?
How many of the roughly 20,000 role cuts Bloomberg reported, and of the UK wealth roles under consultation, does HSBC attribute to AI?
How does the central AI platform under Mario Shamtani relate to HSBC Productivity Suite, and when does it launch?

Sources

HSBC

Filings, results and investor materials

News

Data confidence

Confirmed: Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
Estimated: Derived or approximated from public reporting.
Unconfirmed: Reported, but not yet corroborated.

HSBC profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 9, 2026

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