HSBC and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year strategic partnership to build and deploy AI capabilities across the bank’s global operations, with an initial focus on wealth management, financial crime risk management and AI tools for frontline staff.

The partnership, announced at Google Cloud Summit London, is expected to support more than 200 new AI use cases at HSBC over the next two years. The bank said the collaboration will help accelerate AI adoption across its products and services globally, while prioritising high-value initiatives where HSBC estimates the benefit could exceed $100 million through direct revenue gains or wider efficiency improvements.

The agreement will see HSBC work with Google Cloud and Google DeepMind engineering teams on new AI-powered tools and programmes. The bank will also gain access to Google’s latest agentic AI capabilities, including Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.

“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,” said Georges Elhedery, Group CEO, HSBC.

“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.”

The collaboration builds on HSBC’s existing use of Google Cloud, with more than 600 HSBC applications already running on the platform.

The bank said the partnership will further accelerate its shift towards AI-enabled ways of working across its global operations, while balancing innovation with risk management and human oversight.

One of the first areas of focus will be hyper-personalised wealth management support. HSBC said it plans to combine AI-driven insights with relationship manager expertise to help thousands of relationship managers provide more proactive and tailored financial support to customers.

The bank said this could support real-time advice at every stage of the client journey, while maintaining a secure approach to customer service.

A second area of focus will be financial crime risk management. HSBC said it will deploy generative AI and agentic AI to build a financial crime architecture capable of detecting risk at an earlier stage, helping to prevent harm while improving the customer experience.

The bank currently monitors nearly one billion transactions every month for signs of financial crime. Through the partnership, HSBC expects to be able to intervene twice as fast when risk is detected.

The third initial focus area will be AI-empowered teams. HSBC said it will expand an AI-powered decision assistant that is already reducing administration and client meeting preparation time from hours to minutes for thousands of users.

The bank also plans to codify regulatory procedures into an AI structure to help provide bankers with structured options and analysis for decision-making. HSBC said the aim is to give colleagues more time to focus on faster insights and personalised client service, while keeping human judgement at the centre.

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The partnership comes as banks and financial services firms continue to explore how generative AI and agentic AI can be applied across highly regulated environments. For HSBC, the collaboration is intended to support both customer-facing services and internal operations, including relationship management, risk detection and decision support.

Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, said: “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.”