Open Tech Community Leeds: Putting AI Into Practice

Welcome to our first Open Tech Community event in Leeds, held as part of this year’s Leeds Digital Festival. Our first Leeds event is co-hosted by Slalom and Lloyds Banking Group and features three talks covering AI adoption and thought-provoking examples of AI in practice, followed by a short Q&A panel.

1: From Vision to Reality: Establishing an AI Centre of Excellence

Richard Fayers is a Senior Director of Data & Technology at Slalom, where he leads strategic initiatives that help organisations drive business transformation through innovative data solutions. With deep expertise in data strategy, architecture, and emerging technologies, he advises on modernisation efforts, builds high-performing teams, and delivers cloud-native solutions that translate complex technical concepts into tangible business value.

In this presentation Richard will share insights from one of Slalom’s client engagements where they established an Operating Model to drive adoption of AI. The session will focus on the strategic importance of realising business value and getting from PoC to working solution. Elements of the presentation will include:

• The challenge!
• Establishing an agreed vision for AI across the organisation
• AI CoE foundations
• The AI product lifecycle: Envision, Mobilise, Build, and Operate
• A governance model for the AI CoE
• Building momentum and engaging the organisation

2: Mapping the Unseen: Using Graphs to Uncover Risk in Complex Investigations

Join Samuel and Astom from Lloyds’ Economic Crime Prevention Platform as they reveal how graph technology – powered by Neo4j and Linkurious – is reshaping financial crime investigations.

Through a proof of concept using synthetic data, they’ll show how graph models expose hidden connections and risk patterns. Expect practical engineering insights, a look at the platform’s architecture, and what’s next as it moves from prototype to production.

3: Spotting Scams in Real Time: How Agentic AI Can Protect Customers on Social Media and the Web

Aleena and Christos from Lloyds’ Economic Crime Intelligence team reveal how Agentic AI is helping stop scams in real time – right when customers are most at risk.

Walk through the “Pay Someone New” journey in mobile banking and see how AI flags suspicious details like fake prices or manipulated images before payments are made. Discover how this proactive, customer-first tech is protecting users from financial harm.

4: Q&A Panel where the speakers will answer your questions.

Refreshments will be provided at the event and there will be time for networking.

About the Organiser

Lloyds Banking Group is the UK’s largest digital bank with 28 million customers, 23 million of whom are digitally active. Our aim is to become the UK’s largest FinTech, offering our customers hyper-personalised services and seamless experiences on their device and channel of choice. We’re investing over £4bn in our people, processes, technology and data to make this happen. It’s the largest digital transformation in our sector, and we’re taking an iterative approach to help us move even faster. We produce the No Ordinary Tech Podcast, which topped the Tech Podcast charts in 2024.

Slalom is a fiercely human business and technology consulting company that teams with leaders who expect more. So we bring more. Our strategic vision is to be the first in our industry to lead with bringing more and delivering outcomes as we work to become the world’s most customer-obsessed and employee-empowered services company.