Barclays invests in collaborative engineering platform CommonAI

Barclays is backing the UK’s AI ecosystem with investment in CommonAI, a collaborative engineering platform.

CommonAI was established by Anthemis and Cambridge AI Venture Partners.

The platform unifies startups, enterprises, engineers, and academics to collaboratively build, trial, and implement AI solutions at scale.

CommonAI director and Anthemis founder and group CEO Amy Nauiokas said: “Barclays’ backing underscores the importance of building trusted UK AI infrastructure. As AI moves from experimentation into real-world deployment, the next phase of development will depend on building systems that can operate safely, reliably and at scale across critical industries.”

The bank highlighted CommonAI’s membership model, which it said helps startups and small businesses compete globally by closing scale and knowledge gaps.

Members gain access to advanced models, training data, hardware design expertise, and compute resources, helping businesses build custom AI solutions affordably while maintaining safety standards, Barclays added.

Concurrently, CommonAI has introduced its High Assurance AI programme.

The initiative focuses on building autonomous AI systems capable of making reliable decisions in high-risk environments – such as financial services.

In parallel, Anthemis plans to raise a new fund dedicated to backing startups operating in the high-assurance AI space.

As part of the partnership, Barclays will join the High Assurance AI programme.

The bank intends to leverage the platform to explore strategic applications and develop solutions to key industry challenges in financial services.

Barclays group head of Innovation and PartnershipsKristen Bennie said: “By supporting CommonAI, we are helping to build a more open and collaborative ecosystem that can accelerate the development and adoption of AI across the UK, allowing businesses of all sizes, including Barclays, to access the capabilities and expertise to innovate and compete globally.”

Meanwhile, as per a report by The Times in April, UK’s Lloyds Banking Group started using a specialist AI system in its boardroom, in what is understood to be a first for a UK-listed blue-chip business.

At the time, in a statement to Retail Banker International, Lloyds’s corporate governance director Nicola Putland said: “We see real potential for AI to support decision making in boardrooms when used carefully and responsibly. We are trialling AI tools to support us to better prepare for discussions through faster analysis, and access to a broader range of perspectives.”