Last year, American tech graduates had barely seen their mortarboards hit the floor before they were inundated with job offers from Wall Street’s biggest banks. It’s fair to say that their peers across the pond have taken a more agile approach to recruiting the talent they need to manage the AI boom.
However, it seems that European financial centres are beginning to understand the need for AI talent.
The latest study on AI capabilities in the banking sector shows that UK banks have accelerated their hiring ahead of their competitors.
The number of AI roles listed by UK banks jumped 12% in the first three months of 2024, faster than the rest of Europe and the US, according to consultancy Evident.
Deutsche Bank and Santander are driving European demand for AI-savvy workers, while Barclays, HSBC and BNP Paribas are also investing in AI talent. Between October 2023 and April 2024, HSBC posted 30% more AI vacancies than other European banks.
The Evident AI Index The index measures banks’ success in using technology through measures of talent, innovation, leadership and transparency. Its latest index shows that only one European bank, UBS, is among the top 10 banks globally for AI readiness.
Critics will point out that the investment is the result of resources merged following the bank’s emergency takeover of Credit Suisse.
“After a brutal wave of layoffs, investment in AI is seen by banks as the panacea that will enable them to deliver much-needed productivity gains to their remaining workforce,” said Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder and CEO of Evident, in a statement.
The United States has a head start
The story of US banks pulling ahead of their British and European counterparts is a familiar one, as is the story of US tech companies leapfrogging their rivals across the Atlantic in the AI boom.
Talk to Fortune At the AI symposium in June, Mousavizadeh of Evident said that U.S. banks made a conscious decision to be “first movers in AI” early on in the technology’s breakthrough. From that came the creation of labs, the publication of research, all stemming from a dedicated AI hiring team.
It also led to an arms race among U.S. banks to attract top talent. Goldman Sachs proved to be a big loser from the beginning In that fight, the company saw 60 people leave the ship to join firms like Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.
Mousavizadeh says a significant effort has also been made to recruit talent directly from universities.
Nigel Moden, EY’s MEIA financial services and capital markets leader, says that on the other hand, Europe has historically been less comfortable with the crossover between the technology and financial sectors than the US.
It can also be difficult to convince a computer science student to go into the financial sector and avoid the path taken by people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
However, the latest data suggests that this is changing, with the UK gradually closing the initial gap created by the US.
According to EY’s Moden, large-scale deployment of AI in Europe will occur towards the end of 2025, once banks have defined the regulatory environment.
Ultimately, it may not be a bad thing that the UK lagged behind the US in the early days of AI’s rise.
Moden doesn’t yet see a major gap in US banks’ AI skills, suggesting they are simply experimenting on a large scale, which could offer British firms their own chance to poach in the future.
“If you’re an HSBC, a Barclays or an ING, then trying to recruit someone who’s spent a few years at a big US bank learning their trade might not be a bad strategy,” EY’s Moden said.