How HSBC Employs Google Cloud AI to Fight Financial Crime

HSBC is embarking on a massive digital transformation by partnering with Google Cloud to integrate advanced generative AI and agentic capabilities across its global operations.

The multi-year deal will see specialised engineering teams from Google Cloud and Google DeepMind work alongside the British banking giant to develop new AI-powered tools. 

HSBC expects the partnership to support more than 200 new AI use cases over the next two years.

Through this collaboration, the bank will gain access to the latest agentic capabilities that Google offers, utilising Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. 

The integration will initially focus on three priority areas including personalised wealth management, financial crime risk management and frontline decision support.

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, says: “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.”

Financial forecasts predict high returns

The partnership aims to simplify existing processes at the bank, in addition to the identification and prioritisation of initiatives which hold estimated promises of high returns. 

HSBC estimates that these initiatives could reach upwards of US$100m via direct revenue gains or wider efficiency improvements.

Currently, the financial institution estimates that more than 600 HSBC applications run on Google Cloud, making this deployment a major expansion of its cloud-based ecosystem. 

Georges Elhedery, Group CEO at HSBC, notes that human oversight remains central to the rollout. He says: “AI is becoming one of the defining technologies of our time, allowing us to create a personalised experience for each customer, delivered in real time and at scale, while keeping human judgement, decision-making, and accountability at the core.

“A partnership like this one with Google Cloud helps us empower our colleagues with the tools they need to be future-ready, and supports our work in building a simple, agile, faster and more personal HSBC.”

Targeting crime and wealth management

The implementation strategy focuses on three core areas designed to optimise both backend security and frontend customer experience:

• Wealth management will become more personalised, with AI-driven insights informing relationship managers to provide tailored, real-time advice to clients in a secure manner
• Gen AI and agentic AI will work together to improve financial crime and risk management across the nearly one billion transactions monitored by the bank monthly
• Frontline staff will receive the help of an AI-powered assistant designed to reduce time spent on administrative tasks and client meeting preparation.

The two-fold approach to risk management will see architecture built in the financial crime department which aims to detect risk at an earlier stage. 

When a risk is detected, HSBC expects that it will be able to intervene twice as fast, actively preventing harm while bringing a seamless experience for customers.

Empowering workforce with automated insights

Staff members at the global bank will see hours of work cut down to a few minutes when preparing for client consultations. 

Additionally, the assistant will work to codify regulatory procedures into an AI structure that bankers can use to inform effective decision-making.

By including staff in its priorities for the use of AI, HSBC says faster insights can be delivered with a personalised human touch. 

This strategy ensures the institution maintains operational speed while keeping human judgment at the centre of all banking decisions.