HSBC to hire 100 AI specialists and launch AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore by 2026

HSBC to hire 100 AI specialists, 100 wealth managers in boost to Singapore hub

HSBC plans to hire more than 200 professionals in Singapore, including AI specialists and wealth managers, as part of its strategy to expand higher-fee businesses and accelerate artificial intelligence adoption. The bank will launch a new AI centre in the city, focusing on areas such as personalised wealth management, AI-driven treasury solutions and digital payments. The move comes as HSBC strengthens its presence in Asia while restructuring its operations and investing in future-focused technologies. Hong Kong: HSBC will hire more than 100 artificial intelligence specialists and 100 wealth managers in Singapore, deepening investment in two areas central to the bank's Asian growth strategy as it expands higher-fee businesses and accelerates AI adoption. The ⁠announcement ⁠come as HSBC moves to launch a new AI centre in Singapore in the second half of 2026, the bank said in a statement on Monday. The banking group's Chief Executive Georges Elhedery said in May that AI would destroy and ⁠create certain jobs in the financial industry, and that the bank was retraining its workforce to ⁠meet the challenge. HSBC said it would recruit talent across natural language processing, data science, AI governance and human-centred design. The centre will initially focus on personalising customer wealth management conversations, introducing agentic treasury solutions, and expanding AI-enabled digital payments. Rival Standard Chartered announced in May that its AI transformation would eliminate about 8,000 jobs internally. HSBC is also looking to boost its local wealth ⁠management operation by adding another 100 relationship managers, a company spokesperson said. The bank last week agreed to sell its life and health insurance business in Singapore to Allianz for S$2.7 billion ($2.1 billion), as it trims non-core operations and focuses on its Asian wealth and wholesale banking businesses.

HSBC to open Singapore AI centre of excellence

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. Launching in the second half of the year, the centre of excellence will initially focus on customer wealth journey conversations, introducing agentic treasury solutions and developing AI-enabled digital payments. HSBC says it wants to build a pipeline of talent across natural language processing, data science, AI governance, and human-centred design, and to work with educational institutions and government bodies in Singapore. The centre is part of a wider effort to deploy AI at scale across HSBC: it has inked major deal to deploy the technology with Mistral AI and Google Cloud, while in March Rice became the bank's first chief AI officer. Georges Elhedery, group CEO, HSBC, says: "The new AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore will help drive our global AI vision - to empower our colleagues to use AI to create a personalised experience for each customer, deliver it safely, in real time and at scale, while keeping human judgement, decision-making and accountability at the core."