New team to shape which tasks will be automated, which roles will be created
The National Australia Bank (NAB) is setting up a new AI science team aimed at guiding its workforce's transition amid AI adoption, according to various reports.
The new team at NAB is expected to guide how AI tools are deployed across different parts of the organisation. It will also shape which tasks will be automated, and which new roles will be created to support them.
According to reports, the team's other responsibilities include designing systems that can safely handle customer data, help staff make decisions, and streamline back-office processes.
George Mathews, senior principal data analyst at McKinsey's AI arm QuantumBlack, will be leading the team.
The team will be made up of different AI scientists, AI engineers, data scientists, engineers, as well as product managers and designers.
Mahya Knox, NAB's chief AI officer, said the team will be critical in building "rigorous AI agent architecture, evaluation methodology, and new AI products."
"As we implement AI safely and at scale, we must have the right skills, capabilities and experience," Knox said in a statement quoted by IT News.
"We want to build that foundational capability in-house, helping us create safe and valuable solutions that deliver for the whole enterprise."
NAB's AI hiring
NAB's newest team comes as it previously noted that its AI hiring will "grow substantially."
"We are growing our teams and investing in capability to create AI career paths. People understandably worry about AI-driven job losses, however the people we've hired and are about to hire point to a bigger story of transformation, of new roles and career pathways emerging to utilise this new capability," said NAB's group executive for digital, data and AI, Pete Steel, in February.
NAB's AI hiring comes amid the arrival of another transformational technology after electricity.
"We have AI Scientists who are building and training our AI models – they're the new power stations. We have domain experts who are applying AI to some stubborn problems and opportunities – they're our new electricians," Steel said.
"But what we're seeing is the real change happening as people 'flip the switch' and realise AI will touch every colleague role in the bank in some way. Fundamentally AI will change for the better how we operate and how we serve customers."
