The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has just launched its second US-based “technology hub”, in an effort to better connect with major US AI firms.
The new hub was launched in downtown San Francisco, joining the bank’s first hub, based in Seattle, on the US West Coast.
CBA CEO Matt Comyn said this would allow the bank to access world-class partners, expertise and tools.
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“This is part of our commitment to working at the frontier of technology, alongside leading global partners,” Comyn said.
“We’re investing significantly in our people and capability, because attracting and supporting the best talent means giving them access to the best tools, expertise and opportunities globally.”
It’s worth noting that OpenAI, arguably the world leader in AI, is also based in San Francisco, as is rival AI giant, Anthropic. It’s also less than an hour’s drive to Silicon Valley, where Google has its headquarters.
In fact, product owner of AI-powered engineering at CBA, Henry Chan, describes San Francisco as a place that is powered by AI.
“Very quickly, from the moment you land in San Francisco you notice all the billboards are AI-related. You realise this environment is, by default, AI-powered,” he said.
“Your brain automatically switches.”
“One of the things that we specifically came to San Francisco to learn was how other leading companies are able to move so quickly, how they’ve changed or altered or augmented their product delivery life cycles over the last couple of years.”
So far, the CBA team members for the tech hub have been in San Francisco for two weeks, where CBA said they have been “participating in collaborative learning opportunities with leading AI labs”.
The bank’s crew lead for core foundations, George Beniac, name-dropped OpenAI as a key strategic partner.
“It’s been fantastic to partner closely with OpenAI and really deeply understanding how they are leveraging AI assistants to accelerate the way they work and rapidly prototype new features,” Beniac said.
“What surprised me most about the experience in San Francisco is probably how our partners are able to rapidly iterate and work together across all parts of their business towards a singular outcome.”
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Daniel Croft
Born in the heart of Western Sydney, Daniel Croft is a passionate journalist with an understanding for and experience writing in the technology space. Having studied at Macquarie University, he joined Momentum Media in 2022, writing across a number of publications including Australian Aviation, Cyber Security Connect and Defence Connect. Outside of writing, Daniel has a keen interest in music, and spends his time playing in bands around Sydney.