RBC Research supports the bank's innovation strategy through fundamental scientific study and exploration in machine learning theory and applications.

The Royal Bank of Canada has hired a pioneer of artificial intelligence, Richard Sutton, as head academic advisor to RBC's research arm.

RBC Research will establish a new laboratory and plans to work with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, based at the University of Alberta, to identify and pursue further research opportunities, Canada's largest bank said in a statement earlier this week.

Sutton is widely recognized for his work in reinforcement learning, an area of machine learning that focuses on making predictions without histrocial data or explicit examples, RBC said. 

“We are thrilled to be opening a lab in Edmonton and to collaborate with world-class scientists like Dr Sutton and the other researchers at AMII,” said Foteini Agrafioti, head of RBC Research, adding: “RBC Research has built strong capabilities in deep-learning, and with this expansion, we are well poised to play a major role in advancing research in artificial intelligence and impact the future of banking.”