Commonwealth Bank poaches Ranil Boteju from Lloyds Banking to head AI

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on Wednesday said it has hired Ranil Boteju from Lloyds Banking Group PLC to serve as chief artificial intelligence officer.

The incoming AI boss will commence his new position at the Sydney-based lender in early 2026, joining from London-based Lloyds where he has been group chief data and analytics officer since late 2021.

At Lloyds, Boteju was responsible for the bank's AI, data and machine learning strategy. In this role he led a team of 2,000 people and is credited with scaling AI-driven tools and customer products, delivering over 50 generative AI initiatives.

Earlier in his career Boteju was a CBA employee, but more recently he served as global head of data and analytics at London-based HSBC Holdings PLC from 2018 to 2021.

Chief Executive Officer Matt Comyn said: "CBA is focused on bringing together world-class talent, technology and partnerships that help us deliver on our strategy of building tomorrow's bank today. As we scale to deliver even greater value from AI for our customers and our people, Ranil's global leadership in harnessing AI and data will be instrumental."