# A 201-year-old mutual bank just launched an AI Center of Excellence with a startup partner > Source: > Published: 2026-06-18 19:34:40+00:00 #### TL;DR *Liberty Bank launched an AI Center of Excellence with Flare AI to deploy secure, compliant AI across personal, commercial, and digital banking operations.* Liberty Bank says the partnership with Flare AI is structured around outcomes, not software licences, compressing multi-year buildouts into weeks. *Liberty Bank launched an AI Center of Excellence with Flare AI to deploy secure, compliant AI across personal, commercial, and digital banking operations.* Liberty Bank, a 201-year-old mutual bank headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut, [announced the launch of an AI Center of Excellence alongside a strategic partnership with Flare AI.](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260618842582/en/Liberty-Bank-Establishes-AI-Center-of-Excellence-Strategic-Partnership-with-Flare-AI?feedref=JjAwJuNHiystnCoBq_hl-Q-tiwWZwkcswR1UZtV7eGe24xL9TZOyQUMS3J72mJlQ7fxFuNFTHSunhvli30RlBNXya2izy9YOgHlBiZQk2LOzmn6JePCpHPCiYGaEx4DL1Rq8pNwkf3AarimpDzQGuQ%3D%3D) The centre will serve as the hub for AI strategy, governance, and execution across the bank’s personal, commercial, and digital operations. The partnership is structured around outcomes rather than software licences, according to David Hadd, Liberty Bank’s head of Business Transformation. “*Flare’s role is to design, build, and help deploy AI systems on Liberty Bank’s behalf, compressing what has historically been a multi-year technology buildout into weeks, with the security, compliance, and governance controls regulated institutions require,*” Hadd said. Liberty Bank has over $9 billion in assets, 51 retail banking offices across Connecticut and Massachusetts, and more than 900 employees. It is the oldest and among the largest mutual banks in the United States. The bank says the initial focus will be on deploying secure AI systems to enhance productivity and customer experience, automating complex core processes, and building reusable AI capabilities. “*For a bank our size, the challenge has never been ambition. It has been the time it takes to translate strategy into execution,*” said David Glidden, President and CEO of Liberty Bank. The bank expects the AI Centre of Excellence to drive measurable impact across customer experience, operational efficiency, and growth. [Large banks have warned that scaling AI in production is more expensive and error-prone than pilot programmes suggest](https://thenextweb.com/news/cba-comyn-work-slop-ai-token-costs), making governance and quality control critical from the start. Flare AI CEO Scott Killoh said the company takes a different approach from platform vendors. “*Most banks have been sold AI platforms and left to figure out the rest,*” Killoh said. “*We partner with institutions to deliver working AI systems that are secure, compliant, and tailored to their business.*” Flare AI’s new President and Chief Strategy Officer, David Mitchell, previously spent six years as an executive at Liberty Bank, giving the partnership an unusual level of institutional familiarity. The announcement reflects a broader shift in how [regulated industries are adopting AI](https://thenextweb.com/news/generative-ai-to-agentic-ai-enterprise-finance), moving from experimental chatbots toward structured, governed deployments with audit trails and compliance guardrails built in. For community banks competing against institutions with far larger technology budgets, the speed of deployment matters as much as the technology itself. Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.