AI cuts tech project times from years to months, Deutsche Bank exec

Artificial intelligence is accelerating productivity at Deutsche Bank, enabling tasks that once took years to be completed within months, a senior executive said.

The German lender is using AI to speed up technology projects and ‌tackle a backlog of internal work, but it is keeping a wary eye on rising computing costs.

“We’re seeing things that were two years that are now getting done in three to six months… ​we know the productivity is there,” said Denis Roux, chief information officer, investment ​bank at Deutsche Bank, speaking on the sidelines of the bank’s Bank ⁠on Tech event in Bengaluru, India. He declined to quantify the impact.

Backlogs that once ​took months are now being cleared in weeks, Roux said, adding, “All I’m hoping to do ​is use these tools to continue to make things more efficient.”

The bank has around 9,000 employees in its technology function in India, accounting for about 45% of its global tech workforce. Global firms are ​increasingly using their Indian hubs for higher-value functions, including finance, software development and R&D.

Still, ​managing the cost of AI adoption is a priority as providers move to usage-based pricing models, Roux ‌said, ⁠likening it to the discipline companies developed during their move to cloud computing.

AI firms such as Anthropic and OpenAI are increasingly shifting to token-based pricing that charges customers based on usage, instead of a subscription-based service.

Engineers at Deutsche Bank are allocated quotas for tokens ​and can request additional ​capacity but have ⁠to demonstrate value, with learnings then shared across the organisation, Roux said.

“We monitor the usage patterns… we don’t want to slow people ​down and want them to keep going, but we also want ​to get ⁠a return,” he said.

The bank is also developing AI tools to automate tasks like extracting and analysing financial data, as well as applications that link external events such as geopolitical ⁠or market ​developments to its portfolio to understand exposure.

Roux said the ​bank remains cautious about deploying AI for everything, using simpler models for routine tasks and also assessing where ​traditional solutions may be more effective. Reuters