Lloyds Bank staff have taken 400,000 AI courses since January

Lloyds Banking Group staff are bolstering their artificial intelligence (AI) skills while the bank is adding 300 roles that will focus on agentic AI.

In January, the bank announced plans train all 67,000 of its employees how to use AI this year through its AI Academy, with the aim of reaching its target of all staff being AI literate by the end of 2026.

In an update, it said around 65,000 staff have now taken 400,000 courses through the AI Academy. In tech development, the bank created 300 new agentic AI roles and announced that an initial 33 Lloyds bank apprentices will begin a Level 6 AI Engineering apprenticeships.

The bank said the 300 agentic AI roles will be filled both from within the existing bank workforce and externally. It includes data and AI scientists, engineers, responsible AI specialists and AI product managers.

More than 700 staff are already involved in creating AI use cases. One such use is for providing financial advice. The bank’s AI financial assistant is now used by 500,000 Bank of Scotland customers. 

Sharon Doherty, chief people and places office, said: “As we scale its use, our focus is on making sure it delivers real benefit in day-to-day roles – helping colleagues make better decisions and enabling us to provide faster, more effective and more personalised support for customers. This is about keeping AI practical and accessible, so everyone can use it in ways that make a meaningful difference.”

One of the first cohort to take the Level 6 AI engineering apprenticeship, Emma Richards, said: “My apprenticeship will give me the chance to build practical skills in software engineering while learning how AI can support the work we do every day. Being able to apply that learning in a real business environment, with support from experienced colleagues, will help me build my confidence. It will show me how these skills can be used responsibly to support colleagues and improve the way we work.”

Lloyds Bank has also relaunched its Data and AI Summer School, which attracted more than 90,000 registrations across 200 sessions last year. The topics included covering data literacy and visualisation as well as machine learning and applied AI. This year will see more than 250 sessions.

The banks initiative shows signs that UK banks are attempting to catch up with US firms in terms of providing AI training. A 2025 report from Forrester found that more firms in the US than in Europe provide regular AI training to their employees. The research also showed that many decision-makers wrongly assume their organisation has offered staff formal AI training. In other cases, AI training might not be mandatory or not very effective.

“If you ask other employees whether they’ve received formal AI training, the response is 52% in the US and only 39% in Europe,” the Forrester report stated.

The European employees are falling behind US workers on AI skills report recommended using a blend of different learning techniques to offer the best path toward AI competencies.

“By layering formal learning – in classrooms and online – with social learning, enabling peer-to-peer connections and empowering on-the-job experiences based on learning by doing, employees are provided with a manageable path toward AI proficiency,” the report stated.

It suggested using 10% formal learning, 20% social learning and 70% on-the-job experiences. “The key is to weave these different approaches to learning into an intertwined ‘learning fabric’,” the report added.