Nationwide Building Society is calling for artificial intelligence to be adopted responsibly. The mutual, which operates branches in Birmingham, has partnered with Bain & Company and the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School to make this appeal.
AI to Widen Opportunities for Women
The building society says financial services leaders must use AI to expand opportunities for women. Despite making up 42% of the workforce, women remain underrepresented in leadership roles. AI has the potential to reduce bias and unlock talent, but only if implemented with care and trust.
Debbie Crosbie, Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society and Women in Finance Champion, said: “AI is not just a technology choice for financial services, it is a leadership choice. Used well, it can help make recruitment and progression fairer, widen access to opportunity, and shine a light on talent that might otherwise be overlooked.”
Research Findings
The research suggests that, if carefully implemented, AI could help organisations make fairer, more consistent decisions by focusing on skills, performance and potential. It could also widen access to development opportunities such as mentoring and coaching, beyond traditional networks.
However, the report warns that without appropriate oversight, transparency and accountability, AI systems risk reinforcing the very biases organisations are seeking to address.
Nishma Gosrani, Partner at Bain & Company and one of the authors of the paper, said: “The pace of change in financial services is unlike anything we have seen. Agentic AI is no longer confined to back office automation; it is moving into the front office, becoming the first touchpoint with customers and reshaping the roles of advisers, underwriters and relationship managers. Yet only a small fraction of firms have truly embedded it into how they operate, and fewer still can evidence the value. Closing that gap demands rigour and governance, not just ambition. Get it right and AI becomes a source of trust. Get it wrong and it becomes a liability.”
Feryal Erhun, co-author and Professor of Operations and Technology Management and the Academic Director of the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre at Cambridge Judge, said: “As AI and automation accelerate, there is a real risk that women will be disproportionately disadvantaged, but there is also a genuine strategic opportunity to reset long-standing structural inequalities. That is precisely why this research matters. The question is how to ensure that women are the architects and governors of AI in finance services. Our aim is that this work provides institutions with a practical blueprint for ensuring AI becomes a force that closes, rather than widens, the gender gap in financial services and provides actionable insights.”
