The lender said 94% of customer transactions were completed through digital and alternative channels in 2025, according to its sustainability report. The figures show how Kenya’s largest banks are using automation, cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence to reduce costs as routine banking moves away from physical branches.

I&M Bank said 98% of its transactions were completed through digital channels in 2025, while Equity, KCB and Co-Operative Bank have each reported that more than 90% of transactions now take place outside physical branches. 

That shift is changing where banks direct their technology spending. Investments that once focused on mobile and internet banking are now flowing into cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data systems. 

Absa said its KES 4 billion ($31 million) technology investment funded cloud modernisation, robotics automation, machine learning, and network infrastructure, expanding the systems that support digital banking, fraud controls, and internal operations. 

“Automation and process optimisation helped maintain a cost-to-income ratio of 37%,” the bank said in the report. 

The lender plans to spend between KES 2 billion ($15.5 million) and KES 3 billion ($23.3 million) annually on technology, former CEO Abdi Mohamed said in April. That spending will sustain a technology programme that has become central to how Absa controls costs as growth in its traditional banking business remains modest.

Profit after tax rose 10% to KES 22.9 billion ($178 million) in 2025, even as loans and customer deposits grew just 1%, according to the sustainability report. Other operating expenses fell 21% to KES 7.35 billion ($57 million), while its cost-to-income ratio narrowed to 36.5% from 46% a year earlier.

The changes are also playing out alongside an adjustment in Absa’s workforce, though the bank has not linked automation to job losses. Full-time headcount increased by 43 to 2,210 in 2025, and employee turnover fell to 6.2% from 7.7%.

In January, 82 employees left through a voluntary separation programme that cost KES 717 million ($5.6 million). Those departures came after the reporting period and are not included in the 2025 headcount.

Absa also reported 3,345 workers who were not classified as employees, about 51% more than its permanent workforce. They include outsourced security, cleaning and facilities staff, technology vendors, consultants, contractors, interns and trainees. The bank did not disclose how much it spent on the non-employee workforce or how the workers were distributed across those categories.

The bank still operates 91 branches and service centres and 204 ATMs for more than 1.2 million customers. The network now sits alongside a business where only a fraction of transactions depend on traditional channels, changing the role of branches as routine banking moves to digital platforms.

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