NAB deploys AI for staff called 'Ruby' that is built on Anthropic

NAB has built and deployed an AI tool for its 40,000 staff that it is calling ‘Ruby’, and has assembled internal ‘squads’ to progress an additional 50 use cases for AI technology.

Managing director and group CEO Andrew Irvine revealed the existence of Ruby on a media call accompanying the bank’s FY26 results announcement.

“We have now deployed an AI solution that we've branded Ruby to our internal colleagues.” Irvine said.

“Over 40,000 of our colleagues will have access to Ruby, and that's built on an Anthropic platform that we're very excited about. 

“It will be broadly available to those colleagues for personal productivity.”

In addition to creating Ruby, NAB has assembled “around 50 business-led” and cross-divisional squads that are progressing the bank’s continued adoption of AI technology and use cases.

Managing director and group CEO Andrew Irvine told the bank’s FY26 results call that the squads - an agile term for a group of staff that often operates like a startup within a large organisation - had all been created over the past year.

“AI technology is developing rapidly and will be increasingly important to how we serve customers and to how we run our bank,” Irvine said.

“Over the last 12 months, NAB has set up our key AI squads and established clear frameworks and foundations to govern and manage AI activities including a single AI platform. 

“We’ve also established around 50 business-led squads of cross-divisional teams working alongside global strategic partners such as Anthropic and AWS.”

Irvine told a media call that the 50 use cases are where the bank sees “significant customer, colleague, or shareholder value to prosecute.”

“Those would align very well with our three big business priorities of growing business banking, growing deposits, and growing proprietary home lending,” he said.

“We're leaning in hard and deploying capability there. 

“A good example would be helping our business bankers write credit memos and speed up that process very, very significantly.”

Percentage-based improvements

In accompanying slides [pdf], the bank categorised AI use cases as contributing either to growth or productivity goals.

Unlike Big 4 rivals, it did not put a dollar figure on the value it is getting from its AI investments, instead claiming percentage-based improvements.

Of these, the most significant is perhaps a claimed “18 percent increase in the change delivery cycle [that] has enabled us to deliver more features and benefits to customers from our investment slate,” Irvine said.

Specifically when it comes to agentic AI, NAB called out a 20 percent reduction in the time needed to approve business loans, as well as faster access to insights that enabled bankers to personalise services for customers.

The investments in AI come against a backdrop of a planned reduction of about 2500 staff, which was announced in October.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that about 1200 of the cuts are to come from the bank’s technology and AI teams.

The Finance Sector Union has expressed concerns that investments in AI are contributing to the reductions.

NAB reported a full-year net profit of $6.14 billion for the 2026 financial year.