Zopa launches AI reskilling scheme for 100,000 banking workers

Zopa is launching a five-year campaign to reskill 100,000 banking workers in AI disciplines by 2030.

The move follows research by the digital bank in partnership with Juniper Research which found that banks will invest over £1.8 billion in generative AI (genAI) by 2030 to boost productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer experience.

Zopa said around 27,000 people working in banking will be potentially impacted by AI technology.

The report found that deployments of AI technology are predicted to save 187 million labour hours from back-office and compliance tasks.

Banks are expected to save around £1.8 billion from using AI, which the report said will represent a full return on investment. Around half of this amount will come from back-office functions.

The Jobs 2030 campaign will start by offering training modules in AI disciplines for FinTech workers, specifically engineers, analysts, and operations leads.

The first training modules will be released internally to Zopa employees for testing, with the neobank saying it will roll out the modules more broadly following feedback.

The bank added that reskilling will be provided with accessible and industry-aligned training tailored specifically for the UK banking sector.

A dedicated genAI engineering programme will later support deeper technical upskilling, alongside the creation of the Zopa Coding Academy.

Zopa said that every employee working for the company has access to genAI tools such as ChatGPT, which is paired with training led by OpenAI on prompt writing, engineering best practices and building custom GPTs tailored for internal use.

These initiatives build on Zopa’s deployment of AI technology, which includes using custom GPTs to handle customer queries and detect vulnerabilities, to deploying autonomous coding agents that streamline development processes.

The bank added that a forthcoming AI Voice Assistant will soon take this even further, making customer interactions more intuitive, efficient, and human.

In July, chief strategy officer at Zopa Merve Ferrero told FStech that over the past 18 months the bank has been investing in AI use cases and exploring how the bank could benefit from the technology.

She said at the time that the company was focusing on creating an assistant for customers to help them interact with the bank more seamlessly, as well as AI voice technology.

The announcement of Zopa’s training programme comes after Spanish bank BBVA revealed that it would train over 150 managers to improve productivity through the use of AI in November last year.

The training focused on the use of genAI to improve productivity among executives by improving their strategic decision-making and daily operations. Employees will also be trained in data science and new emerging technologies, as well as learn about tools like ChatGPT.