Starling Bank is planning to grow its tech and data-led workforce with hundreds of new roles over the next two years, as the digital bank also looks to roll out customer-facing genAI over the period.

Speaking at Money 2020 in Amsterdam on Tuesday, Starling's group chief financial officer (CFO) Declan Ferguson, who is responsible for the finance function across both the retail bank and Software-as-a-Service arm, said that the organisation will grow its technology-led and data headcount from 600 employees to 1,000, or possibly more.

The CFO said that it is important for the bank to stay true to what first made it successful as a digital-only bank, adding that Starling has recently had “unfettered investment into technology”.

He explained that customer service and efficiency are areas where the bank has seen the most immediate value, with the organisation using genAI tools to make its customer service agents more efficient.

As part of this strategy, the bank has launched a scripting tool for calls, which is currently being used by agents, as well as technology to highlight conduct risk problems.

It is also using genAI to identify vulnerable customers, with the technology providing a hit rate around 70 per cent higher than the company's human agents.

Ferguson told the audience that the next step will be applying genAI to customer-facing use cases, which he revealed would happen over the next few years.

He explained that as the novelty of genAI wears off, with real use cases now at play in financial services, "more progress is needed", including at Starling as the business scales the technology.

The CFO said that in terms of measuring the success of genAI applications, current and prospective shareholders will eventually want to understand what the ROI is.

He said that from a finance perspective “investors will become more discerning”, adding that there will be a “sobering moment coming over the next few years” where banks will have to explain the technology’s success.

Ferguson warned that the biggest risk for firms is not acting on AI now because "financial services will look very different in three years' time," and those that don't won't be a part of that shift.

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