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HSBC has signed a deal with French artificial intelligence start-up Mistral to access its models as banks rush to adopt new technologies that they hope will make employees more productive and lower their costs.

Mistral and HSBC said they would work together to develop generative AI models that will be used by employees across the bank for tasks ranging from financial analysis to translation. 

The partnership, the financial details of which were not disclosed, reflects a broader effort by traditional lenders to weave new technologies into their operations.

The deal is the latest example of a big bank adopting generative AI tools, demonstrating the extent of the technology’s rollout even within traditionally conservative sectors.

JPMorgan Chase employees have been given the option to use an in-house AI system to help write performance reviews, the Financial Times has reported. The bank rolled out LLM Suite, its own version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to staff last year in one of Wall Street’s biggest AI deployments. 

Banks have sought to portray the widespread adoption of AI as a way to improve employee efficiency and free up time for more complicated tasks but the costs of deploying such tools are expected to be met through lowering headcount.

Employees at HSBC, Europe’s largest lender, would be able to use the technology to crunch through complex documents in multiple languages and make financing decisions quickly, the company said. The partnership with Mistral is expected to develop into other areas, including onboarding new clients and anti-money laundering checks.

HSBC has said it is already using AI in its corporate and institutional banking and wealth and personal banking divisions to help offer a better service to its clients. 

Mistral, valued at almost €12bn in its latest funding round, is seen as Europe’s homegrown company with the best chance of competing with far larger US rivals such as OpenAI. 

The two-year-old Paris-based group has signed several contracts with companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Its customers include French lender BNP Paribas, carmaker Stellantis and multinational insurer AXA. 

The rollout of AI tools by banks must be carefully managed to avoid risks to accuracy, data security and reputation. UK lender Virgin Money apologised this year after its AI-powered chatbot reprimanded a customer who used the word “virgin”.

HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery said the bank and Mistral were “committed to the responsible use of AI and will work together to ensure all deployments adhere to the highest standards of AI transparency, data privacy, and technology development”.