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Commercial Bank of Dubai Trains 1,300 Staff in AI as It Moves From Copilot to Agents

Chief executive Bernd van Linder says CBD will judge its AI programme on efficiency and service quality rather than tool counts, after a 21.38% return on equity in nine months.

By Nakoda News Desk

·2 min read

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Commercial Bank of Dubai chief executive Bernd van Linder said about 1,300 of the bank's employees have completed AI training.
Commercial Bank of Dubai chief executive Bernd van Linder said about 1,300 of the bank's employees have completed AI training.Photo: khaleejtimes-english

Commercial Bank of Dubai has trained about 1,300 employees in artificial intelligence. It is moving from general-purpose assistants to AI agents built for specialist banking work, chief executive Bernd van Linder said in an interview with Khaleej Times.

The bank started with broad adoption of Microsoft's Copilot so staff could get used to the technology, van Linder said. It then moved to a tool called Merlin and a dedicated programme of AI agents supporting specialist banking workflows. He said CBD treats AI as a strategic investment rather than a separate technology budget line. Success will be judged on processing efficiency, service quality, employee productivity and customer experience, not on how many tools are deployed, and he stressed the need for strong governance and human accountability.

His comments give one of the clearer accounts from a UAE lender of how an AI rollout is staged and measured. Van Linder separated the programme from the bank's headline efficiency figures. CBD's cost-to-income ratio was 26.53% for the first nine months of 2026, but he said that ratio reflects overall operating discipline and does not measure savings from AI.

CBD reported an after-tax return on equity of 21.38% for the nine months and a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 12.71%. Non-funded income rose 2.6% year on year, helped by fee income. Van Linder said the biggest growth opportunities lie in payments, transaction banking and wealth management, as customers look for integrated services rather than single products.

He called small and medium-sized enterprises a vital engine of the UAE economy. He said AI, Open Finance and digital identity tools can help banks make better-informed lending decisions and speed up onboarding. The bank's UP by CBD service for entrepreneurs links to UAE Pass, the Dubai Unified Licence, the Department of Economy and Tourism and Dubai Founders HQ.

Van Linder described competition in UAE banking as having "never been more dynamic", with established banks, digital-first players and fintechs all raising customer expectations. By 2030, he said, the main change will be a move from product-led banking to connected services built into customers' daily lives and operations.

Sources

  • khaleejtimes-english · UAE banking sector entering ‘one of its most prominent phases’, says CBD CEO

Produced with AI assistance from the sources above. How we work

TagsCompaniesHuman ResourcesOperationsStrategyFinancial ServicesUAE

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