HSBC on Wednesday announced a multi-year partnership with Alphabet Inc-owned Google Cloud focused on building ‌the British bank's artificial intelligence capabilities. The tie-up marks the ‌latest step in HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery's drive to embrace the revenue-generating and cost-savings ​power of AI which can process vast amounts of data, automating tasks previously done by people. The partnership, which HSBC said will focus on areas such as advice for wealth management clients and financial ‌crime risk management, shows ⁠how banks worldwide are accelerating their adoption of AI as they compete in a technology arms race ⁠with each other.