How Lloyds Banking Group’s pioneering use of AI at scale is transforming employee experience and turbocharging operations
About Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is the largest digital bank in the UK, serving more than 28 million customers. It operates brands including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, and Lex Autolease.
Founded in 1695, LBG is headquartered in London, employing approximately 61,000 people and managing assets worth around £900 billion.
When Jo Brown pitched for the widespread adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot throughout Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), she saw this as a necessary first step towards the ultimate goal: scaling AI across the bank so it could be used to reimagine every area of the business.
Because, as Modern Workplace Director, she could see AI’s huge potential to galvanise the business from top to bottom.
But the first challenge was to get people using Copilot and understanding how generative AI could help improve their day-to-day working lives.
In 2023, the bank embarked on a £4bn investment in technology, data and AI that would become the largest digital transformation in UK financial services and mark it out as a technology pioneer in the sector.
Starting with 300 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences offered through Microsoft’s Early Access Program, LBG invited each department to bid for licences, citing a clear business case and measurable goals, says Jo.
“We didn’t want M365 Copilot to be just for technologists. We believed the real value would lie in helping colleagues gather data and insights required to do their jobs quickly and easily.”
Eureka moments
Over time, the bank has recruited a 1,000-strong network of volunteer ‘flight‑instructors’ – Copilot enthusiasts and experts who coach and encourage newbies – supported by weekly ‘promptathons’ to share best practice.
More than 10,000 people have now had training, and this has contributed to a 93% daily Copilot usage rate among the 30,000 colleagues with Copilot licenses.
“People are genuinely curious, but they want to know how it helps them,” says Sophie Bialaszewski, Head of Experience and Adoption in LBG’s Modern Workplace team.
“Once they start using Copilot there’s a moment where they realise, ‘Oh, this is genuinely helping me day‑to‑day.’”
Soon LBG colleagues were using Copilot to draft and summarise emails and documents, prepare for and record meetings, and improve their day-to-day workflows. They found themselves better prepared for client engagements; and product development teams could generate test plans in minutes.
‘Face-to-face’ time
Such efficiency improvements enabled people to focus more on the human and creative aspects of their jobs.
People were saving significant amounts of time through LBG’s Early Access Programme, says Sophie. And this time saving was particularly welcomed by those colleagues who’d been feeling overwhelmed by workloads.
Less time on admin has meant more “face-to-face time with their teams, chatting to people, getting creative and coming up with new ideas, products and propositions.”
These positive results were backed up by enthusiastic staff feedback.
“I’m currently going through an ADHD diagnosis,” said Kirsten McCormack in the Community Bank Engagement team. “I use Copilot to support me in brainstorming. It really helps me focus my mind and get tasks done.”
Victor Rusu, Business Agility Lead for the bank, said: “Copilot has become my edge, turning everyday tasks into opportunities for innovation and impact.”
And Mitul Vadgama in the Chief Data & Analytics Office, talked about generative AI’s ability to turn complexity into “confident, informed decisions.”
Scaling up
Copilot adoption grew organically throughout the company to a few thousand licences as word spread.
“It has been a journey of partnership and a genuine belief that if you put great tools in the hands of colleagues, they will flourish“
Then in March 2025, the bank had enough evidence, both anecdotal and quantitative, to go all-in and commit to rolling out 40,000 M365 Copilot licences.
“It has been a journey of partnership and a genuine belief that if you put great tools in the hands of colleagues, they will flourish,” says Gill Glover, Modern Workplace Product Owner.
“People are only limited by their own imagination, and we’ve seen brilliant use cases from across LBG.”
Ingenious engineers
GitHub Copilot, Microsoft’s intelligent helper for software developers, has also had a profound impact on the bank, says Stuart Fosker, Software Engineering Lead.
“…a challenging 65‑hour task became a 30‑hour success story“
Many large organisations – not just banks – face the challenge of managing legacy systems and codebases acquired and built over decades of growth. This is a challenge for developers who may specialise in the latest technology and modern programming languages but have little knowledge of older ones.
“GitHub Copilot enables our engineers to jump onto a codebase they’ve never seen before,” Fosker explains.
“We converted 11,000 lines of code across 83 files in half the expected time – a challenging 65‑hour task became a 30‑hour success story.”
Nearly 5,000 LBG engineers in the UK are now using GitHub Copilot, he says, which boosts delivery speed, enabling new products and services to come to market faster, thereby improving the customer – and employee – experience.
“Lloyds Banking Group’s pioneering approach to AI showcases the tangible impact that tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot can deliver“
All this within a Microsoft technology ecosystem that prioritises security, compliance, and effective identity management”, he says.
Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK & Ireland said: “Lloyds Banking Group’s pioneering approach to AI showcases the tangible impact that tools like M365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot can deliver – whether that’s saving time throughout the day on routine tasks or halving the time it takes to manage legacy IT systems.
“We look forward to continuing our work together, delivering on our shared vision to ensure Lloyds Banking Group maintains its position as a truly world-class AI-powered digital bank.”