British bank NatWest has appointed Dr Maja Pantic as its first chief AI research officer.

The move forms part of the bank’s plans to advance its AI capabilities to meet customer needs, drive "cutting-edge research and innovation" across the organisation, and support its strategic focus on bank-wide simplification.

Pantic is currently serving as professor of affective & behavioural computing at Imperial College London, having previously been founding research director of Samsung AI Research Centre in Cambridge, and AI scientific research director at Meta London.

As chief AI research officer, she will be focused on accelerating "state-of-the-art" AI use cases, including the use of multimodal AI, like voice and video, to combat deepfakes and generative AI to advance responsible AI controls.

As well as this, Pantic will lead research and innovation to provide a forward-looking view on AI advancements, how they impact the banking industry, and anticipate future shifts in behaviour and technology.

Additionally, the new AI research lead will progress the use of AI for bank-wide simplification by accelerating the use of AI tools and automation to enable colleagues to be more productive, efficient, and focus on activities that matter.

“It’s not the first time I’ve said that AI is helping us to be a simpler NatWest and to transform our customers’ experiences as we become even more of a trusted partner in the moments that matter most," said Scott Marcar, chief information officer, NatWest Group. "Maja’s appointment is another important and exciting milestone; her unique skills and experience will help us adapt and meet customers’ changing needs faster, and more effectively, whilst complementing our team’s existing capabilities.”

The move comes after NatWest announced a collaboration with OpenAI in March to roll out the bank's internal genAI platform to its workforce in a UK first.

NatWest said at the time that the large-scale collaboration could accelerate how quickly and widely it can implement some of the “most powerful” developments in generative AI (genAI), providing direct access to OpenAI’s latest technology and insights.

“My career decisions have always been guided by two things: the opportunity to make an impact and the chance to learn," said Dr Maja Pantic. "Joining a business like NatWest – given the vital role it plays in the lives of the customers and communities it serves – will not only give me the opportunity to work at the forefront of technological shifts in the banking industry at an immense scale, but to learn from leaders who instil a culture of learning and innovation throughout the bank.”

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