NatWest to train all 60,000 staff in AI ethics

TL;DR:

• NatWest is rolling out AI ethics training to its entire 60,000-person workforce, a course taking two to three months to complete.
• Developed with the University of Edinburgh, it covers AI fundamentals, data privacy, regulation and societal impact.
• Chief executive Paul Thwaite has been candid that some current roles will, in time, be done by AI.

NatWest plans to put every member of staff through training on the ethical risks of AI, as the FTSE 100 lender weaves the technology through day-to-day banking. The course — built with the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Futures Institute and first piloted with leaders — is designed to foster what the bank calls a culture of responsible AI as the tools move from the margins to the mainstream.

Literacy as insurance

The programme blends teaching on how AI works with sessions on data privacy, regulation and the broader implications for society and business. Paul Dongha, who leads NatWest’s AI strategy, framed it as equipping colleagues to “recognise risks, ask the right questions and make better decisions”. The roll-out reflects how far the bank has already changed: more than a quarter of its employees now work in software engineering, a striking figure for an institution most customers still associate with a current account.

The drive comes from the top. Chief executive Paul Thwaite has positioned NatWest at the front of the industry’s AI scramble, telling The Times CEO Summit that the “economic prize” lies in how quickly and effectively firms adopt the technology. He was also frank about the consequences for jobs, predicting that some roles “to all intents and purposes” will be delivered by AI. That tension — between productivity gains and headcount — runs through the sector, from Lloyds’ drive to hire 300 AI specialists to Barclays targeting £2bn of cost cuts by 2028.

Looking forward

Where some lenders are buying capability, NatWest is betting on spreading it thinly across the whole organisation. Barclays and Lloyds have joined the Financial Conduct Authority’s live AI testing sandbox; NatWest’s response is to make 60,000 people fluent in the technology’s pitfalls before it is fully embedded. Whether mass literacy translates into safer real-world use — rather than a box-ticking module — will be the test of whether responsible-AI culture can be taught at scale.