The Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business was proud to collaborate with the Careers in Business team on an exciting new project for the prestigious Future Leaders Certificate.

The Future Leaders Certificate was implemented due to the need to prepare MSc students for the potential impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Whilst no one can predict exactly how advances in technology such as AI, automation and big data are going to affect us, we do know that the impact on the types of jobs and skills required in the future is going to be huge.

This requires a mindset that is open to continuously adapting and learning, ability to communicate effectively and use emotional intelligence to build relationships and collaborate, demonstrate resilience in leading people through change and exercise curiosity and creativity to solve complex problems. For the Future Leaders Certificate, our focus was to partner with companies that have Responsible Business as a core value to help students develop the relevant skills for 4IR, leaders with much needed responsibility when pursuing their chosen careers. This is part of the Centre for Responsible Business’ commitment to developing the next generation of responsible business leaders.

Lloyds Banking Group’s project centred around a hypothetical situation which could happen in the banking industry to allow students to develop the skillset they require to tackle issues in the new technologically driven world. The students were required to develop solutions to an issue involving personal data being leaked to the press, from an ethical point of view, to benefit both business and customer.

This type of scenario develops students’ ethical reasoning when planning in business and is designed to equip our future including Lloyds Banking Group.

The participants were split into groups and each assigned a mentor from the Centre to advise them, as well as a trip to Lloyds Banking Group headquarters in London to hear from an expert in the use of AI in banking. All teams performed very well in their final presentations, but the winning team presented an actionable solution which all judges agreed was professional, clear and feasible. 

The mentor of the winning team, Dr Jennifer TyreeHageman, said 'my team didn't just solve the problem, but rather took it as a case study of ethical use of AI. They created a solution that allowed the bank to work with consumers. Using outreach and education alondside a digital app, their solution encouraged consumers to evaluate their finanial decision making, improving their lives. This fulfilled both a business need and an ethical one'.