Rabobank to invest €2 billion in building IT framework for AI, over the next 3 years
Over the next 3 years, Rabobank will invest up to EUR 2 billion in strengthening its Data & IT foundation, enhancing customer experience and scaling Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“Artificial Intelligence (AI), data and other new technologies will further transform the way we work. To take full advantage of these developments, and most of all to meet evolving customer expectations, we will invest up to EUR 2 billion in strengthening our Data & IT foundation, enhancing customer experience and scaling AI.” – said Stefaan Decraene, the CEO of Rabobank and the Chair of the managing board.
To further its aims, the Dutch bank has begun the roll out of a new Agentic Hub, bringing together knowledge, technical development, practical application and evolving ways of working in order to apply agentic AI faster and at greater scale.
Initially, the Hub is being deployed in software development, supporting engineers with specific tasks, such as preparing, building, testing or reviewing software.
„The Agentic Hub is part of Rabobank’s broader AI strategy to develop AI into a core capability. With over 1,100 teams working on software development within Rabobank, a shared approach is important. The Agentic Hub helps ensure that successful applications do not need to be reinvented by each team, but can be made available more broadly.” – according to the press release.
„The use of AI agents will not replace the role of engineers but will further develop it: from writing code to defining objectives and desired outcomes, setting parameters, and validating results. This shift calls for new skills and new ways of working.” – the bank said.
The transformation around software development is led by Myrna Vonk, Transformation Lead of the Agentic Hub. She provides direction for the broader change this development requires. Myrna Vonk: “AI is changing not only how we build software, but also how engineers collaborate and organise their work. If that change is not deliberately organised, it will remain a series of isolated experiments. AI calls for sharper choices, different forms of collaboration and a renewed way of developing.”
