NAB is assembling an “AI science” team to drive adoption of the technology across the bank, headed up by a data scientist from McKinsey’s AI arm, QuantumBlack.
The bank’s chief AI officer Mahya Knox said that the team “will play an integral part in building rigorous AI agent architecture, evaluation methodology and new AI products, ensuring the ability to operate these components safely for the whole bank and create outstanding customer experiences.”
“As we implement AI safely and at scale, we must have the right skills, capabilities and experience,” Knox said in a statement.
“We want to build that foundational capability in-house, helping us create safe and valuable solutions that deliver for the whole enterprise.”
The AI science team will be led by George Mathews, who joins NAB from McKinsey’s AI arm QuantumBlack where he was most recently the senior principal data scientist.
Mathews also has prior experience with CSIRO’s Data61.
The AI science team is expected to get “hands-on” with building AI systems and products.
It will ultimately comprise a multi-disciplinary squad of AI scientists, AI engineers, data scientists, engineers, product managers and designers, with the bank recruiting to add to the nascent function.
