LONDON — Lloyds Banking Group is set to hire 300 technology experts by September as part of a new multi-year strategic plan. Chief Executive Charlie Nunn will unveil this plan, which includes focusing on the use and development of agentic AI systems.

These new recruits will increase the bank's overall headcount and join an existing 1,000-person AI team, which also includes retrained bank staff. Agentic AI refers to autonomous artificial intelligence models that plan and execute tasks with minimal human oversight.

The AI hires will work on projects aimed at identifying and preventing scams and fraud. Other applications include improving online banking personalization, allowing customers to review spending habits, and asking questions about financial products. Internally, some AI models will be implemented to search and summarize human resources documents.

Generative AI provided a £50 million financial benefit to the bank's balance sheet last year, and the bank projects a £100 million financial benefit this year from agentic AI models. The team will deploy Anthropic's Claude and adapt Google's Gemini to meet the bank's specifications.

The bank did not rule out future job reductions as a result of broad AI adoption. In January, Nunn stated that AI implementation would necessitate reducing some jobs in certain bank departments. Trystan Davies, group head of data and AI science, said, "AI will reshape how organisations are structured. It will change roles and how we work, and we are investing in training for colleagues through that transition." He added, "It results in a much better customer experience because, our systems are kind of geared up in the right way."