Nationwide says corporate AI’s financial impact is still a mystery
The building society has equipped thousands of employees with AI tools yet struggles to translate productivity gains into clear profit figures.
Nationwide has begun a large‑scale rollout of workplace AI, giving roughly 16,000 staff access to Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot, but the building society admits it cannot yet pin down the monetary return.
Measuring productivity gains
About 1,000 members of the combined Nationwide and Virgin Money finance team now hold premium Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, while 2,500 engineers are using GitHub Copilot. Paul Ballard, the firm’s technology transformation director, told City AM the tools are already speeding up routine tasks, analysing spreadsheets, drafting emails and summarising meetings, but the exact impact on the bottom line remains unclear.
“The thing that we’ve not nailed yet… is what’s the value that we’re receiving from it?”
Nationwide entered Microsoft’s early‑access programme with 300 users earlier this year and has since expanded to around 1,000 premium licences. The firm stresses that every pound spent must be justified to customers, and it is still working out how to translate observed speed‑ups into measurable profit.
Future AI plans and governance
The building society is experimenting with AI agents for anti‑money‑laundering checks, customer due‑diligence and mortgage processing, but Ballard warned the organisation is “nowhere near autonomous agents”. Human oversight will stay in place to guard against complacency when the technology falters.
To manage risk, Nationwide has created an AI council covering technology, security, legal and procurement, and has consolidated 19 data stores onto Microsoft Azure and Azure Databricks. The firm also wants to avoid locking into a single model, keeping “optionality” as costs and regulation evolve.
Microsoft, which reported an 18 percent rise in revenue to $90 bn in the June quarter, sees financial services as a fast‑adopting sector. Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s executive vice‑president for Copilot, Agents and Platform, told City AM the sector is among the quickest to embrace the technology.
Looking ahead, Nationwide plans to use AI to boost the output of its existing workforce rather than cut jobs. The focus will be on matching the right model to each use case while maintaining a cautious “no FOMO” stance on AI investment.
As AI tools become ubiquitous across banks, the ability to quantify their financial contribution will likely become a key differentiator for investors and regulators alike.
