Nationwide has indicated that quantifying the financial returns from workplace AI remains challenging, even as the technology is being introduced to around 16,000 employees. Approximately 1,000 staff in the combined Nationwide and Virgin Money finance team now hold premium Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, with about 2,500 engineers utilising Github Copilot.
Paul Ballard, Nationwide’s technology transformation director, noted that while staff are using the technology more frequently and completing tasks faster, the exact impact on the building society's bottom line has not yet been established. He stated, "The thing that we’ve not nailed yet… is what’s the value that we’re receiving from it?"
Staff are employing Copilot for tasks such as analysing spreadsheets, reviewing documents, drafting emails, and summarising meetings. Nationwide has also used GPT-4 via Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service to generate customer letters, reportedly reducing the average time from 45 minutes to between 10 and 15 minutes, with human review before dispatch.
Ballard clarified that the rollout aims to boost the productivity of the existing workforce rather than reduce headcount. Nationwide is also investigating AI agents for areas like anti-money laundering and mortgage operations, but Ballard confirmed the building society is "nowhere near autonomous agents," with human oversight remaining crucial.