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Nationwide Building Society

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Nationwide Building Society and IBM partner up to develop, test, pilot and deploy advanced AI solutions
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The complex process of safe and responsible AI adoption  

Generative AI (gen AI) is transforming operations within financial institutions in areas such as customer interactions, risk management, developer productivity and fraud detection. However, adopting this technology requires organisations to undergo significant changes in terms of tools, processes and the skills required to implement them.

Many organisations have made significant strides in experimenting with gen AI. However, successfully transitioning from experimentation to widespread production requires careful consideration of key factors. Organisations need to establish robust frameworks for risk management, governance, and operational readiness to fully realise the potential of gen AI.

Nationwide Building Society is the UK’s second largest provider of mortgages and world’s largest building society, renowned for its commitment to prioritising the needs of its members and empowering its staff to provide an outstanding customer experience. As a member-owned financial services provider serving over 16 million members, Nationwide was intrigued by the potential opportunities that AI could bring to its customers.

Recognising the pivotal role that AI could play in overcoming challenges, identifying opportunities at scale and supporting the organisation's strategic objectives, Nationwide sought expert guidance and implementation support to navigate the complexities of AI adoption and responsibly embed the required foundational capabilities.

We are very excited to embark on our gen AI journey, like the rest of the world we have been captivated by the technology and the possibilities. Suresh Viswanathan Chief Operating Officer Nationwide
A robust roadmap to a successful AI strategy

Nationwide began by establishing a society-wide AI strategy and operating model, culminating in the creation of an AI Centre of Expertise (CoE) with the support of IBM Consulting® and powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.

The centre consisted of an operations team to drive the AI lifecycle, a cross-functional council to evaluate use cases, and a delivery function to build solutions using large language models (LLMs) and enterprise data. The AI CoE team defined clear technical patterns and delivery principles that Nationwide would follow to safely adopt and deploy AI technology and empower its employees and customers. The centre also supported Nationwide’s readiness for gen AI by helping set up the gen AI platform, define training and communications, redesign risk management and governance, provide implementation processes and uphold these responsible principles across legal, technology and data.

IBM Consulting collaborated with Nationwide from the project’s inception, providing not only data science expertise but also strategic guidance on AI adoption. Together, they defined a comprehensive AI strategy and governance model, focusing on building internal capabilities and identifying high-impact use cases. This partnership aimed to ensure that Nationwide could effectively leverage AI to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive business growth.

It is where all the important functions with the Society come together, like Legal, Procurement, Technology, Security, Partner ecosystem, to provide one place where we can discuss and approve AI initiatives. Nitin Kulkarni CIO Data Platform, AI CoE, Data Integration Nationwide
Partnership and innovation to unlock the true potential of AI

With a solid foundation established through the AI CoE Nationwide is now developing, testing, piloting and deploying AI solutions that demonstrate the power of gen AI. Some of the initiatives include contract management, quality assurance and operational reporting. By leveraging platforms such as Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, the CoE has moved beyond conceptual applications to focus on practical deployment scenarios where gen AI can effectively support colleagues in specific operational roles.

For example, Nationwide is using the power of gen AI to enhance the tools that are available to colleagues to support them in their interactions with customers. It can help to process queries more quickly and ensure that colleagues are able to focus more of their time on some of the more complex customer issues.

Their efforts have involved extensive work to refine and optimise AI use cases, facilitating safer and more ethically sound technological advancements. The partnership with IBM helps Nationwide harness the transformative potential of gen AI, keeping the organisation at the forefront of innovation while delivering reliable and effective customer support.

This experience has underscored the importance of cross-organisational collaboration in assessing and deploying safe AI solutions within a regulated industry. The insights gained from these early endeavours will help inform the template for future successful AI deliveries. While customers will continue to interact with Nationwide as they’ve always done, this collaboration will ultimately enhance the overall customer experience, and drive significant improvements across Nationwide’s operations.

We took the opportunity to partner with IBM to help us not only with data science expertise but also to help us work out how we build the capabilities. They helped us evolve our robust governance model, and we worked hand in hand with IBM to make sure we brought the best of both organisations together to understand how we can ultimately deliver great AI outcomes for our customers. Paul Ballard Technology Strategy and Enterprise Architecture Director Nationwide
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About Nationwide

Nationwide (link resides outside of ibm.com) is the world's largest building society, with over 17 million customers–16 million of whom have a current account, mortgage or savings product, and are therefore members of the Society.

Nationwide is owned by its members and focuses on providing banking products and services to them. Nationwide has over 18,000 employees, including those based in its headquarters in Swindon, and those working in its network of over 600 branches across the UK.

Nationwide is the UK's third largest mortgage provider and holds almost £1 in every £10 saved in the UK, as well as one in ten of the UK's current accounts. It also supports landlords and those who rely on the private rented sector for their long-term housing needs through its buy-to-let business, The Mortgage Works. In addition, Nationwide offers a comprehensive range of wider retail financial services and products, including credit cards, personal loans and insurance. These offerings diversify its income, and help it give value back to its customers, through better product pricing than the market average and better service than its peers.

Nationwide's purpose is "Banking–but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society". The Nationwide Board believes that its mutual ownership model enables it to balance its need to retain sufficient profit to remain financially strong, with its commitment to share its success with its customers and members.

Solution component IBM Consulting®
The CoE is there to build what we call the building blocks–the technology itself, like how we translate the voice into text, how we actually redact the PII from the transcripts for example [...], it is where we can bring together use cases, integrate into our wider ecosystem, ensure it is security checked and so forth. Srinath Kanisapakkam Chief Data & Analytics Officer Nationwide
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