As banks across Europe face growing pressure to scale digital services, control operational risk and deliver change at speed, automation is increasingly becoming a core pillar of software quality and resilience.
For institutions serving high-volume customer segments with tight margins, manual processes are not just inefficient but a direct source of defects, delays and compliance exposure.
Against this backdrop, some newer banks are building automation into their operating models from the outset, treating it as a foundation for DevOps, quality assurance and long-term scalability rather than a bolt-on efficiency tool.
Nest Bank, a digital lender founded in 2016 and headquartered in Poland, has taken exactly that approach. Owned by private equity firm AnaCap, the bank has built its business around mobile-first services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, offering free mobile business accounts and one-click online loans.
The bank’s focus is an underserved segment of the Polish economy: small firms that are too complex for retail banking but too small to justify traditional corporate models.
Serving this segment at scale brings inherent operational challenges. Volumes are high, margins are tight, and manual processes quickly become a source of cost, risk and error.
From the outset, Nest Bank concluded that traditional operating models would not be sustainable without a strong automation backbone.
“You need to automate to avoid spiraling costs and manual mistakes.”
– Karolina Mitraszewska
“You need to automate to avoid spiraling costs and manual mistakes,” explained Karolina Mitraszewska, vice president and chief operating officer at Nest Bank until late last year.
Rather than expanding administrative headcount as the business grew, the bank chose to invest early in robotic process automation.
According to Przemysław Buraczyński, director of change management and transformation at Nest, automation became the foundation for scaling the business without compromising control or service quality.
“We’ve used robots to scale fast,” he said. “Instead of creating a workforce of administrators, we’ve invested in the future, creating leaner operations based on robots. On average, they can do the equivalent work of one hundred full-time employees. This means we can meet the growing needs of our clients, offering business-level service with retail banking volume.”
Nest began experimenting with automation in 2017 after a supplier suggested how software robots could support its growth ambitions. The bank launched a proof of concept focused on a simple but time-consuming back-office task: closing inactive accounts.
“We identified a simple manual process, closing inactive accounts. It’s a labor-intensive task that we didn’t want employees wasting time on,” Buraczyński said.
“The team named its inaugural robot Henio, a Polish name with a homely feel that translates as Henry in English. Henio could do the work four times faster than a person.”
The early success convinced the bank to scale automation more systematically. A centre of excellence was established to guide adoption across the organisation and embed standards, governance and best practices from the start.
“Having seen how automation helped, we knew it was something we should expand,” said Mitraszewska.
Initial efforts focused on repetitive back-office processes where manual handling created bottlenecks and quality risks.
Document archiving backlogs and debt-collection workflows were among the first to be automated, allowing robots to process large volumes of work continuously and without fatigue.
For QA and testing teams, this reduced the likelihood of human error in highly repetitive tasks while creating more predictable, auditable process outcomes.
Pandemic push
Automation proved particularly valuable during the pandemic, when Nest faced sudden regulatory changes and surging demand for government-backed loans administered through the Polish Development Fund. With limited time to react, the bank leaned heavily on its automation capability.
“We needed fast and reliable automations to handle the Covid regulations,” Mitraszewska recalled. “First, we set up a process that allowed customers to apply. Within hours, a robot was managing the main element, with employees supporting. Clients received a fast, reliable and simple service that enabled them to get funding within a tight deadline.”
Because automation had already been embedded into the bank’s operating model, Nest was able to move quickly from a hybrid human-robot setup to a largely automated service.
Over the course of the programme, the bank saved around 15,000 hours of work while processing nearly Polish zł 185,982,635 for more than 5,000 customers.
“Automation was built in from the start,” Mitraszewska said. “Even when designing new solutions to handle Covid regulations, we assumed the technology would be central. We had little choice, but we had also developed an ‘automation first’ mindset.”
As the immediate crisis passed, automation shifted from an emergency enabler to standard operating practice. Nest continued expanding its use of robots across the organisation, with a focus on scalability, resilience and faster change delivery. Increasing process complexity also drove a strategic move to cloud-based automation.
“The solutions we’re currently working on are becoming increasingly complex. We don’t like to be limited by anything, so we decided to implement [QA solution platform] UiPath in the cloud,” said Mitraszewska.
“We had little choice, but we have developed an ‘automation first’ mindset.”
– Karolina Mitraszewska
Cloud deployment gave the bank greater flexibility and speed, while its centre of excellence ensured discipline in how automations were designed and reused.
“Having had a CoE from the start, we’ve built best practices and guidelines that we follow strictly,” Mitraszewska said. “For example, wherever possible, we reuse components. In fact, instead of creating fully formed robots, we now build blocks that can be easily assembled.”
That approach has allowed Nest to develop and maintain most automations in-house, reducing dependency on external consultants. Even when funding was allocated for third-party support, the bank ultimately delivered its automation framework internally.
Alongside technical maturity, Nest has focused heavily on the human side of automation. With around 800 employees, the bank has positioned robots as assistants rather than replacements.
“No robot can replace human creativity. And no robot is 100 percent effective—there will always be a surprising case that must be overseen by a human,” Mitraszewska said.
Role of employees
Employees play a central role in identifying automation opportunities, submitting ideas directly to the centre of excellence and retaining ownership of the resulting processes.
“It’s the employees who submit robotization initiatives to the CoE. They’re the ones who take control, rather than a robot being forced upon them,” she said.
The bank is now piloting a citizen developer programme, enabling staff to build smaller automations using low- and no-code tools to support day-to-day work in areas beyond the CoE’s immediate reach.
Today, Nest Bank operates around 250 automations using just five licences, saving more than 400,000 hours of manual work since 2017.
Time saved remains the primary impact metric, but Mitraszewska said automation has also replaced costly third-party software in some cases.
“A supplier once quoted the bank zł600,000 for a solution,” she said in a case study report. “We used robots, and it was 100 times cheaper.”
Looking ahead, the bank is exploring the integration of artificial intelligence with its automation estate and continues to push a cloud-first approach.
“It’s so much quicker and flexible. Every new automation is cloud-first. The speed at which we can deploy is astonishing,” Mitraszewska concluded.
For QA and software testing teams, Nest Bank’s experience shows how automation, when embedded early and governed carefully, can underpin digital resilience, support rapid regulatory change and enable continuous delivery without sacrificing quality.
As Buraczyński put it, once automation takes hold, “suddenly you start seeing uses everywhere. Not just to save time, but to get products to market quickly, boost compliance, or even using robots to design the processes they’ll be working on.”
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