AI Just Hit 11.7% of the U.S. Workforce, MIT’s New Study Reveals What’s Next

If there’s one theme reshaping sustainable finance today, it’s this: the transition from manual ESG processes to fully digitised, AI-enabled systems. And few institutions illustrate this more clearly than Emirates NBD. In a recent conversation, Vijay Bains- Chief Sustainability Officer and Group Head of ESG—shared how the bank is using technology not just to keep up with regulatory expectations, but to reimagine what sustainable finance can achieve in practice.

Digitisation: From Burden to Strategic Advantage

Sustainability reporting has historically been a heavy lift for global banks. Large ESG frameworks, complex standards, and increasing pressure from regulators have created reporting burdens that can drain both time and resources. Bains is clear: digitisation is no longer optional—it’s foundational.

Emirates NBD is aggressively automating its ESG workflows, often by partnering with fintech innovators. This shift helps the bank “see the wood from the trees” and avoid the counter-productive habits of older systems—think reams of printed reports or endless spreadsheets. Instead, digital platforms centralise data, reduce friction, and unlock reliable insights at speed.

On the lending side, this is game-changing. The bank now uses digital tools to analyse financed emissions across its lending portfolio, allowing it to proactively de-risk its book and lean into sectors that are actively decarbonising. This is sustainability strategy meeting credit strategy—powered by technology.

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AI Moves From Concept to Daily Utility

Many financial institutions talk about AI as a future capability. Emirates NBD is already using it in the present.

A good example: the bank’s AI-driven chatbot, which handles roughly 500 sustainability-related customer inquiries a month. That number is meaningful—not only because the chatbot resolves questions instantly, even outside UAE business hours, but because it acts as a real-time feedback engine. It reveals exactly what customers want to understand: data on products, clarity on reporting, and the bank’s future sustainable finance roadmap.

Bains also highlighted a bigger ambition: using AI to simplify what he calls the sector’s “alphabet soup.” With 600–800 sustainable finance KPIs circulating across frameworks, the landscape can be confusing even for experts. Emirates NBD plans to deploy a chatbot that demystifies all of this—explaining discounts, financing options, and product eligibility to both relationship managers and customers.

This is not just efficiency. It’s empowerment—turning ESG terminology into accessible, actionable guidance.

Importantly, the bank is approaching AI responsibly. Recognising AI’s energy intensity, Emirates NBD built a new data centre powered by nuclear and renewable energy sources, ensuring technological progress doesn’t undermine environmental goals.

The Rise of Transition Finance

While Green Bonds and sustainable sukuks continue to grow—Green Bonds alone make up around 70% of today’s sustainable bond market—Bains believes the next major wave is transition finance.

This segment focuses on hard-to-abate sectors: oil and gas, steel, aviation, and other conventional industries that can’t simply flip a switch to achieve net zero. Transition finance acknowledges this reality and supports a credible, staged decarbonisation journey.

Recent transition finance principles published by ICMA and the LMA are helping shape this space, offering clearer pathways for issuers and investors. Transition bonds, like their green counterparts, provide transparency around a company’s five-year strategy and its integration of climate commitments.

Beyond this, Bains expects rising momentum for Blue Bonds (water and ocean health) and Orange Bonds (gender empowerment). The sustainable debt market is diversifying—and fast.

ESG: Not Just Long-Term, but Immediate

Critics often argue that ESG investing plays out on decade-long horizons. Bains disagrees—and with good reason. As a climate scientist, he points to very real, very immediate effects of climate change on commodity markets.

Shifting precipitation and weather extremes are already influencing prices of cocoa, oranges, and coffee. In some months, the volatility has outperformed gold. ESG isn’t theoretical—it’s showing up today in spot and futures markets. And for lenders, a company’s transition plan now has short-term implications for liquidity and revolving credit facilities.

In other words: sustainability is now a short-term performance driver, not just a long-term ambition.

Carbon Markets Make a Comeback

Perhaps the most interesting trend Bains flagged is the renewed focus on carbon markets. After a period of scrutiny, carbon offsets are emerging stronger, backed by more rigorous standards from global climate summits.

For many firms, this is critical. No matter how ambitious their plans, most will eventually hit a point where internal reductions are no longer enough. Credible, science-based offsets will be essential to bridge the gap.

Carbon trading desks, therefore, will not just be a niche function—they’ll be an integral part of corporate finance strategy.

Technology, ESG, and capital markets are converging faster than ever—and institutions like Emirates NBD are proving what happens when digital innovation is paired with climate ambition. Whether it’s AI-powered ESG insights, transition financing frameworks, or the maturation of carbon markets, the next phase of sustainable finance is here.