Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping organisations take their offerings to the next level, and reflecting on how it has done so over the last few years for itself, the US based financial institution, Bank of America has revealed that AI is now embedded across multiple business lines and areas including global technology, operations and training.
Bank of America spends $13billion annually on technology, of which approximately $4billion will be directed to new technology initiatives in 2025. As AI continues to be utilised in new ways, Bank of America is ensuring its approach to the tech includes human oversight, transparency, and accountability for all outcomes.
This has been the case since 2018, when Bank of America launched Erica, an AI-driven virtual financial assistant, within its mobile app. Since then, clients have interacted with Erica more than 2.5 billion times, with 20 million clients now actively using the virtual assistant.
In addition to recently shared examples of how AI benefits clients and employees, Bank of America’s employees’ use of AI continues to expand in areas such as:
Erica for Employees
Building upon Erica’s success, in 2020, Bank of America launched Erica for Employees, an AI-driven internal virtual assistant which was rapidly adopted during the pandemic by employees seeking technology support in areas such as mobile device password reset, device activation, and many others. In 2023, the functionality was expanded to assist with additional topics such as where to review health benefits, locate payroll and tax forms, and more.
Over 90 per cent of employees now use Erica for Employees, with the virtual assistant having reduced calls into the IT service desk by more than 50 per cent. The capabilities will expand this year to offer enhanced search and assistance across a broader set of topics, including answers to employee questions about Bank of America products and services, with plans to leverage both AI and generative AI (GenAI).
ask MERRILL and ask Private Banking
Leveraging the technology behind Erica, these tools help Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank teams efficiently curate information to deliver superior client experiences. When needed, the chat functionality can also connect teams with experts at the bank for help with more complex requests. In 2024, there were more than 23 million interactions with ask MERRILL and ask Private Banking, an increase of one million over 2023, helping employees more proactively connect with clients about timely and relevant opportunities.
Capturing client feedback
This internally developed GenAI capability is used by Bank of America call centers to summarise call recordings, which helps increase efficiency and ensure the company remains in tune with clients’ needs and improves their experiences. Previously, teammates would manually generate these summaries. Future enhancements this year will extend to other communication channels.
The Academy
Bank of America’s onboarding, education, and professional development organisation uses AI to provide interactive coaching through conversation simulators that enable teammates to practice different types of client interactions and increase proficiency through real-time feedback. Employees completed over one million simulations last year, with many noting that practicing client conversations helps them deliver better and more consistent service.
“AI is having a transformative effect on employee efficiency and operational excellence,” said Aditya Bhasin, chief technology and information officer at Bank of America. “Our use of AI at scale and around the world enables us to further enhance our capabilities, improve employee productivity and client service, and drive business growth.”
This is only the beginning
Additional AI deployments underway, helping to increase employee productivity and improve client service, include:
- Coding assistance – Bank of America software developers are using a GenAI-based tool to assist with code writing and optimisation, through which they have experienced efficiency gains of over 20%.
- Preparing for client meetings – Developing materials in preparation for meetings with current and prospective business clients can take several hours per meeting. AI helps automate and standardise the creation of drafts of materials for meetings with Bank of America Business Banking and Global Commercial Banking clients, with the opportunity for employees to reallocate tens of thousands of hours per year to client engagement and growth.
- Contact center optimisation – A modernised desktop tool leveraging AI proactively provides guided assistance to customer service specialists in Bank of America contact centers, enabling them to deliver a more personalised client experience, increase client satisfaction, and reduce call handling times.
- Research summaries – An internally developed GenAI platform enables the Global Markets sales and trading team to search, summarise, and synthesise our industry-leading research and market commentary more quickly and efficiently.
AI Patent Portfolio
Bank of America holds nearly 7,400 granted patents and pending patent applications. More than 1,200 of these patents are AI and machine learning focused, representing 17 per cent of the patent portfolio, and more than half have already been granted.
Other technology categories in which new patents were granted last year include information security, online and mobile banking, payments, data analytics, and augmented and virtual reality. This is thanks to the company’s more than 7,800 inventors in 14 countries and 42 US states, and a culture that empowers teammates to explore and develop innovative solutions for individuals and businesses globally.
