Barclays Creates Chief AI Officer Role and Hands It to Insider Anita Tanna
Barclays Creates Chief AI Officer Role and Hands It to Insider Anita Tanna #
Barclays has created the position of chief artificial intelligence officer and appointed Anita Tanna, its outgoing group chief of staff, to lead it. It is the first time the British banking group has dedicated a senior executive role exclusively to AI strategy and adoption.
Tanna, who held the group chief of staff position for nearly three years, announced her move on LinkedIn. She said AI holds “enormous potential” to transform how the bank serves its customers and clients and described the technology as a “critical enabler” of Barclays’ overall strategy. In the new role, she said her focus will be on accelerating adoption across the group, identifying where the bank can unlock the greatest value, and ensuring AI is deployed in a thoughtful and responsible manner.
Tanna joined Barclays in 2021 as managing director and EMEA head of equity sales within the Corporate and Investment Bank. Her responsibilities broadened in 2022 to include high-touch and programme trading execution services before she moved to the group chief of staff role in 2024, where she worked across strategic, financial and organisational priorities, including early work on AI, automation and operational simplification.
Her background is in capital markets rather than technology. Before joining Barclays, she spent close to twelve years at Citi, where she rose through a series of senior positions including head of equity sales for the UK, head of international sales and head of global sales. Prior to Citi, she worked in equity sales at Goldman Sachs, having begun her career at Bear Stearns. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Manchester.
The appointment reflects Barclays’ push to coordinate its AI work at the group executive level. Several other large banks, including HSBC, Bank of Ireland and ANZ, have created dedicated chief AI officer positions in recent months as the technology moves from pilot projects to enterprise-wide programmes. The move follows Barclays’ announcement earlier this year that it plans to cut around 5,000 roles as AI reshapes its cost base, an area that will likely fall within the new role’s remit.
Copy link