HSBC.US and Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) join hands to increase investment in AI: automating 200 tasks in 2 years, with each project targeting over $1 billion in returns.

HSBC HOLDINGS (HSBC.US) is taking its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy to a new stage. On Wednesday, the bank announced a multi-year partnership agreement with Alphabet Inc. Class C, a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOGL.US), to automate around 200 tasks using AI over the next two years, and expects to uncover significant revenue and efficiency gains from it. According to HSBC, the engineering teams from Alphabet Inc. Class C and Alphabet Inc. Class C DeepMind will assist HSBC in identifying and advancing a batch of "priority projects," each of which has the potential to bring in over $100 million in revenue growth or efficiency improvement. Technically, HSBC will have access to Alphabet Inc. Class C's Gemini large models, which are currently running 600 applications on Alphabet Inc. Class C cloud. HSBC stated that the cooperation will focus on three core areas: personalized wealth management support, financial crime risk management, and empowering frontline staff decision-making with AI to reduce the time spent on administrative and meeting preparations. This reflects that amidst the intense global banking technology competition, banks are speeding up the integration of AI into their core businesses to gain a competitive edge. HSBC CEO Eji Jizhi said in a statement, "Partnering with Alphabet Inc. Class C cloud and other partners will equip our employees with the technological tools they need for the future, and help HSBC create a more streamlined, agile, efficient, and humanized service system." Prior to this announcement, Eji Jizhi had urged employees in May this year to embrace AI actively, while also warning that the technology "will eliminate some positions, but will also create new ones." HSBC's move is the latest reflection of the global banking industry's accelerating AI arms race. In recent months, many executives of large banks have become increasingly candid about the impact of AI on employment. JPMorgan (JPM.US) CEO Jamie Dimon has stated that technology will eliminate some positions; Citigroup (C.US) CEO Jane Fraser has warned that certain positions may no longer be needed; and Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS.US) President John Beijing Worldia Diamond Tools has described some of the bank's human roles as vulnerable in the face of automation.