Rabobank wants to invest two billion in new technology over the next three years

6 August 2026

While Rabobank put the brakes on AI three years ago, the bank now plans to invest two billion euros over the next three years in, among other things, scaling up AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI), data, and other new technologies are changing the way customers want to bank and the work of our employees. That is why we are investing up to 2 billion euros over the next three years to strengthen our data and IT foundation, improve the customer experience, and scale up AI.

That is what Stefaan Decraene, CEO of Rabobank, said at the announcement of the half-year figuresThe bank realized a net profit of 2.694 million euros over the first six months of 2026.

Slam on the brakes

Three years ago, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer Bart Leurs indicated that the bank viewed AI as a breakthrough technology at that time. However, developments surrounding generative AI progressed so rapidly in 2023 that Rabobank temporarily slammed on the brakes.

Just under a year later, in 2024, gave Thom Kokhuis, at the time Head of Conversational Banking and CRM, stated that within Rabobank, all 16.000 customer advisors were connected to a single platform built from Genesys Cloud, Pega, and Microsoft Co-Pilot Studio. Nowadays, Kokhuis's job title has been changed to Head of Conversational AI, Data & CRM.

When asked whether AI is leading to further contraction, Decraene answered during the presentation of the figures: yes, but not gigantic numbers, according to ANP. The half-year report further shows that AI chatbots improve customers' access to information and reduce pressure on the contact center.

The Knowledge Assistant now supports over 15.000 employees (bank-wide) and reduces processing time by approximately 20 seconds per interaction, according to the half-year report.

Over 27.000 Rabobank employees have now completed advanced AI training in addition to the mandatory program, one in three has a Copilot Work license, and 90 percent use Copilot Chat. What Rabobank plans to do next at the intersection of customer experience and AI remains unclear for the time being.

(zip tone)