95% of Westpac staff using AI regularly

Australia’s second-largest bank, Westpac, has revealed that AI is being used by almost all of its staff and teams.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on HR Leader’s sister brand, Banking Daily.

The bank said that over 70 per cent of its 35,000-strong workforce is now using AI tools within their daily workflows, while over 95 per cent are using it at least monthly, jumping up from last year's statistic of 69 per cent.

“We’re in the midst of one of the most significant shifts our industry has ever seen,” said Westpac chief, data, digital, and AI officer Andrew McMullan.

“The ability to understand, to reason and act on information is becoming dramatically cheaper and much more accessible.”

“That doesn’t just improve existing processes; it changes what we do, how quickly we can do it, and what customers have now come to expect of us.”

AI adoption for the bank only seems to be speeding up, with the bank having just unveiled its new enterprise data platform Adapt.

The platform is built upon Microsoft Azure, and is a foundation for customer intelligence and activity and AI work, using data from 285 source systems.

McMullan says that Adapt is “one of the largest data modernisation programs ever undertaken at Westpac”.

“AI only scales with trusted data. That’s why we’ve spent the last few years simplifying and standardising the way data is managed across the group.

“Adapt is our new enterprise data platform. It brings together data from 285 source systems into one common governed environment on Microsoft Azure.

“Delivering it required the migration of over 1PB of data and more than 14,000 data pipelines onto one single platform.

“Having this one enterprise data platform in the Azure cloud helps reduce duplication, allows us to apply governance much more consistently, and gives our teams faster, more secure access to the data that they need.”

The platform finished data migration in March, and according to McMullan, is resulting in internal teams using it “moving faster than they’ve ever moved before.”

Adapt will also work closely with Westpac's Unite program, which is consolidating various platforms into a simplified technology stack.

“Adapt and Unite work together,” McMullan said.

“Unite is simplifying the underlying systems, [while] Adapt connects and governs the data across them.

“Together we’re creating a simpler and stronger foundation for how information flows through the bank, and that’s really important because every digital experience, every insight and every AI capability depends on the quality of this foundation.”

Westpac’s Intelligence Layer, which was first made public in 2025, will also rely on Adapt.

The layer, according to McMullan, creates a unified platform that brings the range of financial products used by customers into one place, simplifying the customer experience.

“One of the most important opportunities created by Westpac Intelligence is the ability to bring the whole bank to the customer,” McMullan said.

“Historically, customer relationships have been fragmented across products, channels or business units. A customer may have a mortgage, transaction account, a business relationship, maybe an investment relationship with us. These interactions have often been managed separately.

“Westpac Intelligence connects the full customer, not just individual interactions, giving us the ability to understand, anticipate and serve customer needs across every single touchpoint.

“It brings together customer relationships, behaviours, their products, transactions and interactions into a more complete view of our customer.

“The goal is understanding the full customer relationship to enable a more relevant, connected, and timely response across all our channels.”

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