RBC forms new AI unit targeting CAD $1 billion by 2027

Royal Bank of Canada has created a new AI Group reporting directly to Chief Executive Dave McKay, as the lender steps up efforts to bring artificial intelligence projects into wider use across the organisation.

The team will work with business and functional units on AI applications already under development, the bank says. Over the next several years, it aims to turn selected projects into "market-ready solutions" for clients.

RBC set an ambition at its 2025 Investor Day to generate up to CAD $1 billion in enterprise value from AI-related benefits by 2027, and has positioned the new group as part of that push.

"RBC has spent the past decade investing in AI, including proprietary data platforms and scale, exceptional talent and world-class security," said McKay. "With generative and agentic AI opening new frontiers for financial services, we are creating a dedicated team to leverage our core strength and data scale, and partner across the business to turn potential into real value for our clients."

The AI Group will also work with human resources and learning teams on workforce readiness. RBC has more than 100,000 employees across 29 countries.

Existing AI Work

The new unit builds on AI programs already in place across the bank. RBC has developed internal models and employee-facing tools, and has partnered with external research and technology organisations.

Earlier this year, RBC announced a partnership with Canadian AI company Cohere to co-develop and deploy North for Banking, which RBC described as an "enterprise generative AI solution optimised for financial services".

Among its internal technology efforts, RBC highlighted ATOM, its Asynchronous Temporal Model. The bank said it trains the model on large-scale financial datasets and that ATOM was used across 15 RBC products and processes in 2025.

RBC also pointed to intellectual property tied to AI, noting it has filed more than 1,200 patent applications since 2019, including 635 related to AI.

Leadership Changes

Veteran technology executive Bruce Ross will lead the new group as Group Head, AI. Ross previously served as Group Head of RBC Technology & Operations for 12 years and remains a member of the bank's Group Executive.

In that role, Ross oversaw major internal technology work and product development. RBC also credited him with leading the integration of HSBC Bank Canada following its acquisition.

The AI Group will act as an internal accelerator, focusing on moving early-stage work into scaled deployments. It will also maintain expertise across security, responsible AI practices, and regulatory expectations.

Naim Kazmi has been appointed Group Head, Technology & Operations, replacing Ross. Kazmi previously served as Executive Vice President for Commercial, Core Banking & Payments Technology and will join the Group Executive.

RBC described Kazmi as a global technology leader with more than 25 years of experience, and said he played a central role on the technology side of the HSBC Bank Canada integration.