ABU DHABI: First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and Microsoft will collaborate in developing new AI-based banking capabilities under a strategic business partnership signed today, with the UAE’s largest bank and the global technology leader to cooperate on the launch of an ‘AI Innovation Hub’ for financial services.

The new AI Innovation Hub will focus on innovation, sustainability, and customer experience. The hub will drive partnership under three main thematic areas for collaboration – innovation through AI, driving global growth, and shaping the future of financial market ecosystems. The hub will accelerate the adoption of new innovations and AI technology into financial services to provide product enhancement, personalisation, unique AI risk models, new solutions, and other advances.

The initiative extends FAB’s previous work in AI, including its long-standing partnership with G42. FAB recently joined forces with Core42 – a G42 company and full-spectrum AI enablement solutions provider – to accelerate the migration of FAB’s data centre and workload to Microsoft Azure, including access to the Azure platform’s pioneering cloud and AI solutions.

FAB has led significant advances in technology innovation for the banking sector, fully integrating its comprehensive suite of products and services into a market-leading, digitally driven service model. The bank is already incorporating advances in AI and blockchain into its platform, providing customers with a seamless, fully digital banking experience from account opening and onboarding, through to a full range of everyday service requests.

The initiative closely aligns with the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, which aims to establish the UAE as a world leader in AI by 2031 with policies to create an AI-friendly ecosystem, encourage advanced research in the sector, and promote collaboration to accelerate the adoption of AI.

Hana Al Rostamani, Group Chief Executive Officer at FAB, said, “The AI Innovation Hub marks another milestone for the bank in setting a bold agenda for innovation. In partnering with Microsoft, a recognised global leader in AI, we are demonstrating our ambition to accelerate advances in generative AI, intelligent automation, and machine learning.”

Naim Yazbeck, UAE General Manager at Microsoft Gulf, said, “We are excited to partner with FAB on this strategic initiative that is a testimonial of FAB’s aspiration to leverage the power of generative AI as a platform for innovation and industry disruption. Together with FAB, we are set to build ground-breaking capabilities that will translate FAB’s leadership and vision as a market innovator and trendsetter both regionally and globally.”

The AI Innovation Hub will further enhance FAB’s competitive leadership as an innovative, AI-enabled, sustainable, and secure bank. It will allow FAB to use Microsoft’s Azure AI services, including Azure Generative AI capabilities, to cultivate novel, innovative capabilities to automate and revolutionise operations throughout the FAB Group. Potential areas of collaboration include Banking-as-a-Service and Risk-as-Service, which could be further categorised across digital services, lending, and payments within consumer, corporate, and investment banking.