Lloyds to upskill employees with data and AI summer school

Lloyds Banking Group will run a data and AI summer school for its employees as part of its commitment to building a digitally confident workforce.

The two-month initiative will run throughout July and August delivering over 250 sessions, with the bank saying it expects “thousands” of employees to take part.

The summer school features a mix of formats including expert panels, keynote talks, technical workshops, hackathons and gamified sessions.

Lloyds said topics span the full spectrum of data and AI, including generative AI (genAI), data strategy, data visualisation, machine learning, and data management.

Planned sessions include how agentic AI is changing financial services, data storytelling and Google’s six-hour AI prompt engineering in 30 minutes.

In March, Lloyds announced a partnership with the University of Cambridge and EdTech firm Cambridge Spark to equip over 200 senior leaders with the insight and tools to navigate the fast-evolving world of AI.

The group said the summer school builds on this by scaling data and AI learning across the organisation, empowering employees at every level to innovate responsibly and with confidence.

The initiative is part of a wider tech-focused strategy announced by the bank in January this year, with the firm unveiling plans to invest over £4 billion on a digital transformation designed to facilitate hyper-personalised services and seamless experiences.

Lloyds claims it currently has more than 100 AI use cases in pilot, testing or live, and has established a Centre of Excellence for AI to build deep in-house expertise.

To encourage engagement, the programme includes challenges and prizes. Last year, over 44,000 employees took part, and Lloyds said this year’s programme is set to be even more ambitious.

“This is about democratising data and AI across the Group and building confidence, capability and curiosity at every level,” said Ranil Boteju, chief data and analytics officer at Lloyds Banking Group. “The summer school is a brilliant example of how we’re making learning accessible, engaging and impactful for tens of thousands of colleagues across Lloyds Banking Group.”