NatWest chief executive Paul Thwaite said artificial intelligence will "deliver" some existing banking roles, remarks reported by The Times on June 19, 2026. Thwaite made the comment at a business summit hosted by The Times, saying, "In effect there will be roles that currently exist that absolutely to all intents and purposes [will be] delivered by AI," per The Times. He told reporters he did not know whether the lender's 60,000-strong workforce would shrink over the next decade, This is Money reported. Earlier comments to MPs in May 2025-reported by PA and republished by Yahoo Finance-have described AI as improving productivity without a direct one-to-one link to job losses at NatWest. Media coverage noted the bank is hiring more staff in software and AI-related roles, according to This is Money and Daily Mail reporting.
What happened
Paul Thwaite, chief executive of NatWest, told a business summit hosted by The Times that artificial intelligence will take over some existing banking roles. Per The Times, Thwaite said, "In effect there will be roles that currently exist that absolutely to all intents and purposes [will be] delivered by AI." This is Money reported that Thwaite said he did not know whether the lender's 60,000-strong workforce would shrink over the next decade. Earlier remarks to MPs in May 2025, reported by PA and republished by Yahoo Finance, quoted Thwaite saying he did not see a direct link between deploying technology and job removal at the bank.
Editorial analysis - technical context
Industry-pattern observations: Large financial institutions frequently pilot generative and narrower AI systems first in structured back-office functions such as accounting close, credit scoring, and document extraction because those tasks have clearer inputs, audit trails, and measurable KPIs. Public comments from bank executives typically reflect that practical automation efforts concentrate on repetitive, rule-bound workflows rather than on complex advisory roles where human judgment and compliance oversight remain significant.
Context and significance
Reporting on Thwaite's comments arrives amid broader sector discussion about workforce disruption from AI. This is Money cited Morgan Stanley analysts projecting that more than 200,000 banking jobs across Europe could be affected by AI over the next five years. Other bank chiefs have made similar public statements recently, and press coverage also highlights that banks are hiring more software, data science, and AI specialists, per This is Money and Daily Mail reporting. For practitioners, this combination of public executive signals plus hiring trends implies rising demand for skills in applied machine learning, model deployment, data engineering, and process automation tooling within financial services.
What to watch
Observers should track three observable indicators that will clarify how AI changes banking workforces:
- •published restructuring announcements or headcount figures from major banks
- •concrete deployment case studies (for example, automation of reconciliations, credit scoring, or customer onboarding) that disclose scope and measured efficiency gains
- •regulatory guidance or audit requirements tied to AI use in finance, which affect which tasks institutions can automate and how they document models
Media statements by executives and rolling hiring profiles on job boards will also reveal whether banks are reallocating roles toward data-science, machine-learning-ops, and automation engineering.
Scoring Rationale #
The story is notable because a major bank CEO publicly acknowledged that AI will perform some existing roles, reinforcing an industry trend toward automating structured financial workflows. The immediate operational impact is incremental rather than transformational, but the signal matters for hiring, MLOps demand, and compliance planning.
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