UK digital bank Zopa has launched its Jobs 2030 campaign, a five-year initiative aiming to reskill 100,000 UK banking workers in artificial intelligence (AI) disciplines by 2030.  

The effort comes amid potential job displacements affecting up to 27,000 banking workers, the bank said.   

Its focus is on providing accessible and industry-aligned training for fintech professionals, including engineers, analysts, and operations leads. 

The campaign will introduce a dedicated GenAI Engineering Programme for deeper technical upskilling, along with the Zopa Coding Academy.  

Initially, the training modules will be tested internally by Zopa employees before a broader rollout.  

Zopa said every one of its employees now has access to GenAI tools, such as ChatGPT, coupled with OpenAI-led training on prompt writing and engineering best practices. 

Zopa’s initiatives extend beyond training, as they enhance their GenAI capabilities by using custom GPTs for customer queries and vulnerability detection.  

Autonomous coding agents are also being deployed to streamline development.  

An upcoming AI Voice Assistant aims to improve customer interactions, making them more intuitive and efficient. 

The reskilling campaign follows a joint report by Zopa and Juniper Research highlighting the impact of GenAI on the UK banking sector.  

UK banks are projected to invest over £1.8bn ($2.43bn) in GenAI by 2030, aiming to boost productivity and reduce costs.  

These deployments are expected to save 187 million labour hours, primarily from back-office and compliance tasks, with an estimated £1.8bn in cost savings. 

In financial developments, Zopa secured £80m in Additional Tier 1 capital in May and an £80m equity fundraising in November 2024.  

The bond was issued on the International Securities Market of the London Stock Exchange.  

At the time, the digital lender said these funds would strengthen its balance sheet as it prepares to launch its flagship bank account.