Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Lloyds Banking Group has poached Amazon Web Services executive Rohit Dhawan to head its artificial intelligence strategy, a new role the UK high-street bank is creating as part of its digitisation efforts.Lloyds on Monday said it had hired Dhawan as its first group director of AI and advanced analytics. Dhawan, who has a PhD in AI from the University of Sydney, previously headed AWS’s data and AI strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. He will report to Lloyds’ chief data and analytics officer Ranil Boteju.The move comes as banks are looking to roll out AI and machine learning on a wider scale to make productivity gains and reduce costs. Some experts have warned that incumbents have been slow to implement the technology due to regulatory fears. Morgan Stanley was one of the first lenders to appoint a group head of AI in March.“Rohit’s appointment is a significant boost for the strategic development of AI technology and capabilities within Lloyds Banking Group,” said Boteju. “Rohit will work across the business to further integrate AI outcomes into business priorities, helping us to scale AI in a consistent way and deliver against our strategy.”The bank said Dhawan would be tasked with supervising the integration of AI into customer and operational processes as well as creating a new data and AI function within the bank. He would also oversee an “AI Centre of Excellence” comprised of experts in data science, behavioural science, machine learning engineering and AI ethics, the bank said.“It’s a privilege to join Lloyds Banking Group, and I’m excited to work for an organisation undergoing one of the largest transformations in financial services and look at how we can transform the way we use data and tech to respond to changing customer needs,” said Dhawan.The bank is more than two years into implementing a strategic plan that has involved reviewing thousands of middle-management positions in an effort to digitise its operations and improve returns.Lloyds said it had recruited 1,500 technology and data specialists this year and that it was trialling 50 AI use cases to help deliver quicker customer support, improve its chatbots and detect early warning signs of fraud.The group said it uses machine learning algorithms to help triage and prioritise customers’ calls and for income verification when customers take out mortgages, which it said reduced the process from three weeks to a few seconds. Lloyds, which also has an insurance and pensions arm, also used AI to register insurance claims following storms in January, which it said freed up time for urgent phone calls from customers.
