HM Treasury turns to Lloyds and Starling’s AI leaders for advice and guidance on AI.
The UK government has turned to two of the banking sector’s most advanced AI operators as it looks to encourage adoption of the technology across financial services.
The Treasury announced on January 20 that Harriet Rees, Group CIO at Starling Bank, and Rohit Dhawan, Head of AI and Advanced Analytics at Lloyds Banking Group, have been appointed as ‘AI Champions’.
In the tole, both Rees and Dhawan will be tasked with identifying where innovation is being slowed by policy, infrastructure, or skills gaps and where firms can go faster without undermining trust or resilience.
“Harriet and Rohit bring deep, real-world experience of deploying AI safely at scale, and they will help turn rapid adoption into practical delivery – unlocking growth while keeping our financial system secure and resilient,” said Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby.
This is the latest initiative by the current UK government to stand out in the AI race, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a priority last January when he declared the UK “will go our own way on” on regulation in efforts to attract potential companies looking to find a global hub.
The financial industry from the start has been a key sector when it comes to using AI and developing the technology, adopting it for customer support as well as fraud detection, credit risk and compliance.
Why Lloyds and Starling?
Lloyds’ inclusion as one of the government’s new AI Champions reflects how early and seriously the bank put AI as a core capability.
Long before generative AI became an industry obsession, Lloyds was already publicly framing the technology as a structural shift for financial services.
In 2023, research commissioned by the group found four in five financial services leaders believed AI would significantly reshape the UK economy, with productivity gains and improved customer experience cited as the primary benefits.
At the time, Lloyds executives argued firms that failed to invest risked falling behind competitors.
This mindset quickly led to organisational change in August 2024, when the bank created a dedicated AI and Advanced Analytics leadership role and appointed Dhawan to lead a newly formed AI Centre of Excellence.
Since then, Lloyds has focused on turning strategy into deployment through partnerships such as one in 2024 with Cleareye.ai to automate compliance checks on complex documentation using machine learning and natural language processing.
In 2025, Lloyds also invested heavily in skills, launching a six-month AI leadership programme with Cambridge Spark to train more than 200 senior executives in identifying and scaling high-impact AI use cases.
“It is a privilege to have been asked by HM Treasury to take on the role of AI Champion for financial services,” said Dhawan.
“AI has the potential to reshape the industry and at Lloyds Banking Group we are already seeing how thoughtful and responsible adoption of AI can transform customer experience and the way a large organisation operates.”
Payment Expert has approached Lloyds Bank for comment.
While Lloyds has arguably stood out for how aggressively a traditional bank has embraced AI, identifying a single leader among challenger banks is harder. Most, if not all, neobanks are tech-focused.
However, Rees’ appointment from Starling Bank is far from surprising given the bank’s DNA.
Founded in 2014 by Anne Boden, Starling was built from scratch around modern infrastructure, avoiding the legacy core systems which slow many incumbents. The technology-first approach has allowed the bank to bring services in-house and launch products at pace.
Rather than outsourcing critical functions, Starling rebuilt everything from its core banking platform to its contact centre and card processing stack internally, giving it control over data flows and system architecture.
In June 2025, Starling became the first UK bank to integrate a generative AI chatbot directly into its consumer app, using Google’s Gemini model to power its “Spending Intelligence” feature.
The tool allows customers to query their transaction data, surfacing insights on budgets, trends and patterns without offering financial advice or storing sensitive prompts.
“Being appointed AI Champion for Financial Services is an exciting opportunity as the sector faces a pivotal moment to become a world leader in AI,” said Rees.
“I look forward to working with HM Treasury and the industry to create a world-class ecosystem in which innovation exceeds customers’ expectations and the transformative power of AI unlocks growth.”
Payment Expert has approached Starling Bank for comment.
