Westpac put its AI training numbers in an ASX filing

Most AI training stories arrive as a case study with a stock photograph of someone pointing at glass. Westpac put this one in an ASX and NZX filing. Company secretary Tim Hartin authorised it. Andrew McMullan, Chief Data, Digital and AI Officer, and Dan Jermyn, Chief AI Officer, are on the pack.

That is the story. Not "bank explores AI." A listed Australian bank, with a New Zealand listing, telling the market what the workforce is actually doing with the tools.

The numbers they were willing to print

The filing says more than 35,000 employees have access to AI tools, 95% of employees use those tools monthly, and 72% have integrated AI into their workflow. It also says 95% completed non-mandatory training, the bank ran 262 specialised AI education sessions, and it recorded an increase of up to 35% in code development productivity.

The filing prints six numbers and two named officers. It does not rank Westpac against any other bank.

Monthly use is not fluency. Non-mandatory completion is not evidence that someone can supervise an agent. Workflow integration is the line I would keep. Seventy-two per cent is a lot of people who are past the "I have a licence" stage. The 35% coding number is an "up to." Treat it as an upper bound, not a run-rate.

They also listed the unfashionable work: board and executive education on AI strategy and risks, AI education for all employees, and training for specialised AI activities. That is the split every grown-up programme needs. Everyone gets the floor. Specialists get the ceiling. The board gets enough to ask a real question.

Why this is a signal, not a mood

Dan Jermyn is a named chief AI officer on a market update. In our watchlist that is the appointment-plus-programme stack: a person with a title, a number of seats and a training count you can argue with. If you buy training in Australia or New Zealand, this is the artefact you should demand from your own CAIO.

The rest of the pack is digital origination and service. Fine. I am here for the people line. Access for 35,000 is a procurement decision. Two hundred and sixty-two specialist sessions is a calendar. Completion of non-mandatory training is a culture tell. People did it without being dragged.

Read the pack as an operator, not as an analyst. Monthly use at 95% means the tool is on the desktop. Workflow integration at 72% means some of those people have changed how a job gets done. The gap between 95 and 72 is the real programme: licences that have not yet become a habit. That is where L&D should live, not on another introduction-to-Copilot course.

The "up to 35%" coding number belongs in an engineering slide with a method note. If you cannot say whether it was a two-week spike or a quarter, do not take it to the board as a run-rate. Jermyn and McMullan put it on the ASX as an "up to." Keep the hedge.

Australia and New Zealand both get this pack because Westpac listed it on the NZX as well as speaking as an Australian major. If you run L&D in Wellington, this is your artefact too. Do not wait for a local case study with a kiwi.

What this means for L&D

If your programme cannot survive an ASX-style slide with six numbers and two named officers, it is a lunch-and-learn. We run AI skills work that starts where the hours leak, because that is the only way those 72% numbers stay true after the all-hands.

Six numbers, two names, one filing. Put it in the board pack. If you do not have the numbers, you do not have a programme. You have a vendor.

Sources: Westpac Data, Digital and AI Update, 15 September 2026 (NZX PDF). NZX announcement 479789.