Between 30-40% job roles in banking will change with some disappearing due to AI: Chief Technology, Data, and Innovation Officer, Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank’s global technology hub in Bengaluru showcased GenAI solutions developed by their India-based teams at the ‘Bank on Tech’ event held today. Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Global CIO Corporate Functions, Deutsche Bank and CEO, Deutsche India spoke about how technologies like cloud, AI and GenAI were pushing substantial change in outcomes.

Bernd Leukert, Chief Technology, Data, and Innovation Officer highlighted their cloud transformation journey with Google Cloud as a partner as well as the ongoing integration of GenAI tools.

“Earlier, growth in revenue and customers was tied to more people in operations. Since we’re trying to keep our total head count mostly flat, we strongly believe that investment in technology will allow us to grow the business without permanently adding people,” he said.

Mr. Leukert underlined India’s importance in Deutsche Bank’s tech supply chain adding they would continue hiring in the near future. “Since COVID-19, we have decided that we would rather go where the talent is. And India is a huge source of talent. That’s why we have grown to 8,500 people just in tech within a decade. We’re on a kind of permanent growth path and do not want to stop that.”

Given that banking is a very regulated sector and AI regulation is still debated, Mr. Leukert admitted the challenges that came with adoption. “Results in AI are not predictable generally. Regulators on the other hand, would prefer a rule-based system so they can audit, regulate and oversee more easily,” he explained.

Despite this, it is essential for the banking industry to keep up with the pace of adoption, he said.

Commenting on the recently concluded AI Paris Summit where the general consensus emerged that the EU must cut red tape to push AI innovation, Mr. Leukert said, “I am happy we have the EU AI Act because having regulatory and legal boundaries is good for investors like us. While Europe is known for regulation, discipline, enforcement of laws, we also need entrepreneurial freedom.”

Europe had grown a tendency, he added, over the past few years to have more reporting obligations which kept bankers and government officials busy. “So, we appreciate that openness in dialogue with politicians now,” he stated.

At the moment, Deutsche Bank is focused on leveraging AI to drive efficiencies within and offering better customer engagement externally. “We are hesitating with heavy, regulated areas like money laundering or financial crime risk, where we have to be more prudent and careful. But that does not mean that there are no big opportunities for applying AI here,” he added.

Mr. Leukert also denied that AI on the whole was a threat to the labour market. “The banking sector is also expected to see a change in between 30-40% of the job roles. Some might even disappear. But the problem especially in Europe is that we are short on skilled labour. In this case, AI, is a recipe to enable continuous growth because it can add value without needing to add more people,” he noted.