Rui Braga

Director, Data Science & AI at Banco BPI

Judge

Rui Braga leads the Data Science & AI function at Banco BPI's AI Centre of Excellence, where his team of 30 data scientists, data engineers, and AI engineers builds and deploys AI solutions across all major business areas of the bank - from agentic AI and generative AI to computer vision and predictive ML analytics.

Organized in specialized squads, the team covers the full technical lifecycle: model development, data engineering, productionization, MLOps, and monitoring.

Before joining BPI in 2022, Rui spent over a decade at novobanco across data science, capital management, IT, and international operations, and 3 years at SAP implementing risk and capital solutions for banks across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Rui is particularly interested in how AI is reshaping operations in regulated industries — and in closing the gap between proof-of-concept and production-grade AI where trust, explainability, and compliance matter.

Rui’s background includes a degree in Economics (Lisbon/Stockholm), MSc Business & IT (Aston), and AI certifications at MIT. Rui has +8 years of international academic and professional experience.