Barclays’ new head of AI has already attracted an anonymous complaint
As we reported last week, Barclays has got itself a new chief AI officer in the form of Anita Tanna.
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Tanna was appointed last Friday and declared on LinkedIn that she was "excited" and that she would be "focused on accelerating adoption [of AI] across the group." Her elevation came as Barclays said it would be cutting 5,000 jobs with the help of AI, with 60% of the cuts coming from support functions. Bloomberg reported that the bank plans to redeploy staff where possible but there is skepticism about such promises. "Frankly the whole relocation carrot is a joke, fake and soul crushing," wrote someone on our previous article last week.
In the circumstances, it's perhaps unsurprising that Tanna's appointment hasn't been universally welcomed. However, an anonymous letter from people purporting to be Barclays insiders claims that the issues with Tanna go beyond the fact that Barclays' AI push is associated with thousands of job cuts. The letter questions whether the appointment went through a competitive recruitment process. Tanna, who spent much of her career in equity sales at Barclays and Citi, was chief of staff to Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan from January 2024.
"Elevating an executive without technical credentials to spearhead this transition proves that the announced restructuring is not an objective technological evolution," says the letter, which is addressed to Barclays' chairman and copied in to the co-COO.
The letter offers little to support its claims. It's not unusual for CEOs to promote a trusted colleague. Nor is it unusual for AI heads to have non-technical backgrounds. In its paper on good practice for AI in financial services last week, the FCA said specifically that it doesn't "expect senior managers to be technical specialists."
The FCA said senior managers responsible for AI do need to "take reasonable steps to understand the risks arising from AI use within their area of responsibility, and obtain appropriate information and expertise where necessary."
Barclays declined to comment and Tanna didn't respond to a request to comment.
The bank is already in the process of making its 5,000 job cuts, with developers and employees in locations like Northampton particularly affected.
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