Lloyds Banking Group Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Nunn, is leading one of the United Kingdom’s longest-standing financial institutions through what he describes as a potentially transformative era for banking, driven by artificial intelligence, digital innovation and changing customer expectations.
Speaking on Brilliant Moves: Coffee with CEOs, Nunn said the future of financial services will depend on institutions’ ability to maintain customer trust while continually reinventing themselves to remain relevant in a rapidly changing technological environment.
In conversation with Tunde Olanrewaju, McKinsey senior partner and managing partner for Europe, Nunn highlighted the scale of Lloyds Banking Group’s role in the UK economy. He noted that parts of the organisation date back more than three centuries, while the group currently supports one in four people in the country, has relationships with about half of all adults and serves one in five businesses.
According to Nunn, that scale creates both responsibility and opportunity. He said trust remains the foundation of financial services, but institutions must continually look ahead and innovate if they are to serve customers effectively in the future.
Nunn described artificial intelligence as the third major technological shift to reshape financial services during his career, following the emergence of computing and broadband in the 1990s and the subsequent transformation brought by the internet and mobile technology.
He said Lloyds had already been using AI models for several years, with about 800 models in operation before generative AI became mainstream. These technologies, he explained, have supported areas including customer protection, risk management and service delivery.
The arrival of generative AI, however, has opened up a much broader opportunity, particularly in creating more personalised and human-like digital interactions. Nunn noted that about 23 million people log on to Lloyds Banking Group’s digital services approximately seven billion times a year, giving the organisation a significant platform through which AI can enhance customer experiences.
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He said at least half of the group’s focus on AI and agentic AI is centred on improving customer outcomes, differentiating its services and enabling growth. A major opportunity, he added, lies in using technology to expand access to financial advice and insights that are currently unavailable to many customers.
“If you think about financial services, it’s about advice and then insight,” Nunn said, stressing the potential for AI to bring sophisticated financial intelligence to a much broader customer base.
Beyond customer services, he said AI could also improve the way Lloyds operates by enhancing efficiency, strengthening risk-based decision-making and improving the quality of interactions with customers.
Nunn also emphasised that technological transformation cannot be separated from people and organisational culture. Lloyds has hired almost 10,000 data and technology professionals in recent years, while the group has also invested heavily in reskilling its workforce.
He revealed that about 80 per cent of Lloyds Banking Group’s 65,000 employees had engaged with its self-service AI and training tools within a few months of their launch.
For Nunn, the organisations most likely to succeed in the coming decade will be those that encourage curiosity, experimentation, learning and accountability. He argued that technology alone does not create transformation; rather, people, culture and new ways of working determine whether organisations can unlock its full potential.
He also warned businesses against simply distributing AI tools without fundamentally rethinking how their organisations operate. Drawing an analogy with the arrival of the internet, Nunn said businesses did not become e-commerce companies simply by installing broadband in their stores; they had to rethink their entire business models, architecture and operations. The same principle, he suggested, applies to AI.
“It’s not just the individuals, it’s the culture, it’s the ways of working and it’s the whole environment you create for an organization to really make a difference,” Nunn said.
Reflecting on leadership, Nunn said organisations operating in an uncertain environment must identify areas where they can become genuinely distinctive and ambitious, while developing the resilience to continue learning as circumstances change.
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He attributed much of his own leadership philosophy to his grandmother and mother, who he said maintained an optimistic outlook despite significant challenges. His grandmother’s philosophy—that it is the optimist who gets things done, has remained an important influence on his approach to leadership and business.
Looking ahead, Nunn said his ambition is to help reinvent what great financial services can look like for individuals, businesses and society in the UK and beyond.
After more than three decades working across technology and financial services, he believes the opportunities created by the next phase of technological advancement could be greater than those realised over the past half-century.
“The next five years could outstrip what we’ve achieved in the last 50 years,” Nunn said, underscoring his conviction that financial institutions must build the capabilities, culture and vision required to embrace the future.
