Standard Bank Group is leading in artificial intelligence (AI) maturity in South Africa and ranked second overall in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), according to the Evident AI Index for Banks – MEA.
The index is one of the leading independent benchmarks of AI maturity in global banking, measuring how technology is adopted, scaled, and embedded across organisations. Financial institutions are assessed on four key pillars of AI capability: talent, innovation, leadership, and transparency.
Having established itself across major banking markets in North America and Europe, the index was expanded this year to include 25 of the largest banks in the MEA.
Standard Bank Group’s overall ranking in the index reinforces its pioneering position in AI adoption, with the group also rated number one in the region for innovation.
Standard Bank recently appointed Jörg Fischer as chief AI officer, in addition to his role as group chief information officer. This reflects the organisation’s strategic focus on AI and its belief that it will be a critical driver of future competitiveness, growth, and value creation.
Standard Bank chief operating officer Margaret Nienaber says its ambition to become Africa’s pioneering AI financial services organisation is clear.
“This recognition from Evident confirms that we are making meaningful progress on that journey. AI is not optional; it will fundamentally change how clients interact with us, how work gets done, and how value is created,” she says.
“We are elevating the AI system from a short-term productivity lever to a long-term competitive capability across all four of our business units.
“We are embedding it across Standard Bank to improve client experiences, enable our people and create market-leading sustainable value.”
The bank’s trailblazing approach is underpinned by creating a culture of adoption and shifting from the light-touch use of AI tools to AI-enabled work.
More than 20,000 of Standard Bank’s employees are already active AI users, and the bank continues to invest in the skills, capabilities and culture required to help them win in an AI-enabled future.
The bank’s AI activities are underpinned by a powerful technology platform built on scaled cloud infrastructure and governed through a responsible AI framework.
While Standard Bank is excited about AI’s potential, it recognises the risks it presents and continues to invest in the governance, guardrails, security, controls and human oversight required to ensure it is deployed safely, responsibly and in line with the group’s values.
AI development is overseen at the most senior level: it is a CEO-owned agenda, supported by its chief AI officer and cross-functional specialists embedded across the group’s business units.
An ‘and’, not ‘or’, approach
“The Standard Bank Group’s AI [approach] is not an ‘or’ strategy, it is an ‘and’ strategy,” says Fischer.
“Partnering with leading global hyperscalers and adopting an open architecture across best-in-class open and closed AI models allows us to retain the flexibility to access innovation from both the East and the West.
“This optionality enables us to move faster and adapt as the technology evolves.”
This article was sponsored by Standard Bank Group.
