Barclays has appointed Anita Tanna, until now group chief of staff to the chief executive, to the new role of chief AI officer. The position was created to speed up AI adoption across the bank. Tanna will set priorities for high-value uses and make sure AI is deployed responsibly. The appointment comes days after Barclays said it would cut around 5,000 jobs this year.

What it means: Appointing someone from the executive’s inner circle rather than from the technology department shows that large banks now treat AI as a matter of strategy and organisation, not as an IT project. The role is tied to decisions about which tasks to automate, how teams will change and which supervisory risks the bank accepts. The recent Bank of England and FCA survey shows that almost all UK banks already use AI, but with limited autonomy, and that oversight of outside providers is the biggest gap. In Greece the systemic banks have started AI programmes in customer service, transaction monitoring and internal productivity, yet responsibility is often split. The AI Act requires clear governance, especially for credit scoring systems, which count as high risk. A role with a clear mandate and access to the board makes compliance and fast decisions easier. For Greek fintechs that sell to banks, this means their counterpart is changing: they will need evidence on risk, transparency and measurable benefit, not only a technical demo.

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