Westpac has disclosed that AI use on its St.George legacy data warehouse migration cut the project's cost from an initial budget of $70 million to around $35 million, iTnews reported. The AI-assisted migration was completed more than two years ahead of the original schedule.
The bank applied AI tools specifically to code conversion, testing and documentation during the migration, which formed part of Unite, Westpac's internal technology simplification and transformation program. Migrated data lands in a platform Westpac calls Adapt, built on Azure as a cloud-based data and analytics environment. A slide devoted to a single technical project appearing in a bank's financial results presentation, with the chief executive citing it, is fairly unusual.
CEO Anthony Miller said the St.George data warehouse migration is a strong illustration of how AI is helping the bank execute the Unite program. He said the tools, methods and experience developed through the migration can be reused for other migrations, describing it as a reusable AI data migration capability. Miller said the St.George project illustrates the results achievable once AI capability is woven into programs of work.
Westpac said the St.George data warehouse migration produced a repeatable, reusable AI data migration capability that should generate further financial and delivery benefits in future migrations. The pattern of creating reusable migration processes is one that banks previously applied when moving applications from on-premises to cloud infrastructure during earlier rounds of cloud adoption.
Benefits from the St.George data warehouse migration are expected to begin being booked from FY27, Westpac said. The bank's AI-assisted St.George data warehouse migration is forecast to return around $15 million each year in direct benefits. The bank reported full-year statutory net profit of $6.8 billion for the year ended 30 September 2026, one percent lower than the prior year.
The reusable migration model Westpac developed may reduce cost and time for future data migration projects within the bank, with direct annual benefits of around $15 million projected once the old warehouse is decommissioned, also planned for FY27.
Reporting: iTnews
Background: The Motley Fool Australia, HRD
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
