UK-based relationship bank, NatWest Group, has announced plans to hire 5,000 engineers over the next three years to augment its AI, cloud engineering and UI-UX development. At a media briefing, top executives at NatWest added that approximately 60 percent of these hires — approximately 3,000 recruits — will be for "high-end engineering roles" in India.

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"We will be on the lookout for candidates with AI, analytical and mathematical skills with expertise in UI (user interface) and UX (user experience), in addition to having capabilities in cloud engineering and cyber security," said Scott Marcar, NatWest's Chief Information Officer, "We expect parts of our mobile and core banking applications to be built in India."

Should the proposal succeed, NatWest will be adding to its present headcount of 18,000 in India spread across NCR, Bengaluru and Chennai. At present, 50 percent of the group's technology is in India, even as the market accounts for 40 percent and 80 percent of its finance and market operations, respectively. Last year, NatWest Group India's headcount grew by 2,000, of which 450 were graduates.

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The decision to hire big, globally, comes in the backdrop of NatWest's Digital X strategy that focuses on engineering, innovation, and developing digital insights for banking functions. The Digital X vertical is expected to be re-branded in India as 'NatWest Digital Services', which will see the group's proposed infusion of engineering talent.

"More than half our presence in India is already in tech, data analytics and AI, and this ratio is growing," said Punit Sood, Head of International Hubs at NatWest Group, "We need more tech talent in India; I expect the demand for skills like Java, Python and other digital capabilities to grow by 25 to 30 percent CAGR."

NatWest's recruitment projections come at a time when India's Global Capability Centre (GCC) market was valued at $46 billion in FY-23, with a projection to hit $60 billion by FY-25. NatWest expects the sector to account for direct employment totaling 1.6 million across the country. However, the employee mix is likely to see a shift in the mix between finance, operations, tech and risk management roles, favouring opportunities in engineering and tech, said Punit.

In the larger scheme of things, the objective for NatWest, quite simply, is to transition to a scenario with minimal or complete elimination of manual banking processes: "There is a lot of focus on productivity within AI so as to eliminate manual work," said Marcar. Even today, 93 percent of NatWest's retail customers' banking needs are met digitally.

The rapid proliferation of GPUs, access to data at scale and integration of Internet of Things (IOT) into banking processes has meant that the fusion of banking, AI and automation could occur sooner than estimated.

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