HSBC opening state-of-the-art Global Data & Innovation Lab in Toronto

Move over Silicon Valley, Toronto’s burgeoning tech scene continues to pick up momentum with the addition of HSBC’s new Global Data & Innovation Lab.

The 3,376-sq-ft energy efficient lab will soon employ over 50 skilled AI professionals, technologists, co-op students, and interns, adding to the over 1,500 employees located in Toronto.

Before setting its sights on Toronto, the international bank conducted a global search and chose Canada’s largest city for its interest, investment, and development of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced machine learning.

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The state-of-the-art research, innovation, and development lab will create an AI ecosystem that will use advanced machine learning techniques to analyze up to 10 petabytes (a million gigabytes) of data from 1.6 million corporate and institutional clients from HSBC’s Global Banking and Markets business, according to a release from HSBC.

This ecosystem will also leverage external capabilities as the team plans to partner with a number of startups, FinTech, and AI development houses from across Canada and the globe.

“AI has enormous potential to improve banking for all of our customers,” said Sandra Stuart, president and chief executive officer of HSBC Bank Canada.

“HSBC’s Global Data & Innovation Lab will be an industry-leading data lab, where we will be able to harness the power of machine learning and AI towards creating personalized experiences and tailored products for our customers,” said Stuart.

The programme will be underpinned by the largest aggregation of corporate and institutional client data HSBC has ever put together.

This includes over 47,000 physical tables of information collated from the 67 countries where HSBC operates.

This analysis is expected to help guide the development of future products and services, generating the business insights that will improve customer experience, according to the company.

“The opening of this data lab reflects the growth we are experiencing in technology and innovation and the confidence that global brands have in Toronto,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory.

“Investments like this are forward-thinking and impactful – the research and work that will come out of this lab will make a difference on a local and global level.”