HSBC and Google Cloud unveil multi-year AI banking partnership

HSBC and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year strategic partnership to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence across the bank’s global operations, with an initial focus on wealth management, financial crime risk management and frontline customer service.

The programme is expected to support more than 200 new AI use cases over the next two years, while helping HSBC prioritise high-value initiatives that the bank estimates could each generate more than $100 million in direct revenue gains or efficiency improvements. The collaboration will build on HSBC’s existing technology footprint, with more than 600 applications already running on Google Cloud.

Under the partnership, HSBC will work with Google Cloud and Google DeepMind engineering teams to develop AI-powered tools using Google’s latest agentic AI capabilities, including Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.

 Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, said: “Our partnership with HSBC is a blueprint for the future of the financial services industry. By accelerating AI adoption built with Gemini, our Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, forward-deployed engineers, and Google DeepMind’s research expertise, HSBC is building a more intelligent, resilient, and responsive bank that can create meaningful value for its customers.”

The first phase of the initiative will centre on three areas. In wealth management support, HSBC has planned to combine AI-driven insights with relationship manager expertise to deliver more personalised and timely customer guidance. In financial crime risk management, the bank will use generative AI and agentic AI to help detect risk earlier and intervene more quickly across the nearly one billion transactions it monitors each month. The third area will focus on AI tools for frontline staff and relationship managers, including an AI-powered decision assistant that has already reduced client meeting preparation from hours to minutes for thousands of users.

HSBC said the partnership would help accelerate AI-enabled ways of working across the business while maintaining human judgement at the centre of decision-making.

Georges Elhedery, Group Chief Executive at HSBC, said AI was becoming one of the defining technologies of the era and could help create more personalised customer experiences at scale. Thomas Kurian, Chief Executive of Google Cloud, said the partnership would serve as a blueprint for the financial services industry and help build a more intelligent, resilient and responsive bank.

The announcement reflects the growing role of cloud and AI partnerships in banking as institutions look to improve efficiency, strengthen controls and enhance customer engagement.