HSBC Holdings has created a new Chief AI Officer role and appointed David Rice to fill it, effective April 1, 2026. Rice, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer for Corporate and Institutional Banking, will provide enterprise-level leadership for artificial intelligence adoption across the institution, with objectives including deploying generative AI tools organization-wide and equipping customer-facing staff with AI capabilities.
Group CEO Georges Elhedery said “AI plays a key role in how we get there” and that Rice “will be instrumental in helping us realise our ambition in this area.” Rice described AI as playing “an ever-increasing role in HSBC’s future plans.” Mario Shamtani, Chief Technology Officer, will take on an expanded remit alongside the new structure. HSBC serves customers across 56 countries with total assets of $3,233 billion.