Bank of America (BofA) employs cutting-edge technology to anticipate and satisfy the demands of its 213,000 employees and customers. This dedication has been evident in its approach to AI and machine learning for many years. Global technology, operations, and training are only a few of the business lines and sectors where the technology is now integrated.
“AI is having a transformative effect on employee efficiency and operational excellence,” said Aditya Bhasin, Chief Technology & 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 drive client service and business growth.”
The first widely used AI-driven virtual financial assistant, Erica®, was introduced by Bank of America in 2018 through its mobile app, seven years ago. Since then, 20 million clients have actively used the virtual assistant, and they have engaged with Erica over 2.5 billion times.
Key AI Initiatives
Human monitoring, openness, and responsibility for all results are all part of Bank of America’s AI strategy. The application of AI by our staff is growing in domains like:
- Erica for Employees – Building on the success of Erica, Bank of America introduced Erica for Employees in 2020. This AI-powered internal virtual assistant was quickly embraced by staff members who needed tech assistance during the pandemic in areas like device activation and mobile device password reset, among many other things. The capability was extended in 2023 to help with other subjects including where to get payroll and tax documents, where to evaluate health benefits, and more.
Erica for Employees is being used by over 90% of workers, and the virtual assistant has decreased calls to the IT support desk by over 50%. With plans to use both artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI), the capabilities will grow this year to provide improved search and help across a wider range of subjects, including responses to employee inquiries regarding Bank of America products and services.
- ask MERRILL® and ask Private Banking® – These solutions, which make use of the technology underpinning Erica, assist Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank teams in effectively curating information to provide exceptional customer experiences. When teams require assistance with more complicated inquiries, the chat feature may also link them with bank specialists. With over 23 million interactions with ask MERRILL and ask Private Banking in 2024—a 1 million increase over 2023—employees were able to engage with clients more proactively on pertinent and timely possibilities.
- Capturing client feedback – Bank of America call centers utilize our in-house GenAI capability to condense conversation records, which boosts productivity and guarantees the business stays aware of customer demands and enhances customer experiences. These summaries were previously created by colleagues by hand. This year, there will be more improvements made to various lines of communication.
- The Academy – Through conversation simulators, Bank of America’s onboarding, education, and professional development division employs artificial intelligence (AI) to offer interactive coaching. This allows colleagues to practice various customer interactions and improve their skills with real-time feedback. Over a million simulations were finished by staff members last year, and many of them said that practicing customer discussions improved and increased the consistency of their service.
Other AI implementations in progress to boost worker output and enhance customer service include:
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Coding assistance – Software developers at Bank of America have seen efficiency increases of more than 20% by employing a GenAI-based tool to help with code creation and optimization.
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Preparing for client meetings – It might take many hours to prepare materials for meetings with both existing and potential business clients. AI enables staff to reallocate tens of thousands of hours annually to customer engagement and growth by automating and standardizing the development of drafts of materials for meetings with Bank of America Business Banking and Global Commercial Banking clients.
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Contact center optimization – Customer service representatives in Bank of America contact centers may proactively get guided help via a modernized desktop product that uses AI. This allows them to give a more individualized customer experience, boost customer happiness, and shorten call processing times.
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Research summaries – The Global Markets sales and trading team can now more quickly and effectively search, summarize, and synthesize our industry-leading research and market commentary thanks to an in-house GenAI platform.
AI Patent Portfolio
Of all financial services companies, Bank of America has the most awarded patents in the United States, with around 7,400 granted and pending patent applications. Over 1,200 of these patents, or 17% of the whole patent portfolio, are centered on AI and machine learning, and more than half of them have already been awarded.
Information security, online and mobile banking, payments, data analytics, and augmented and virtual reality are some of the other technological areas where new patents were awarded last year.
This is made possible by the company’s more than 7,800 skilled innovators spread throughout 14 nations and 42 U.S. states, as well as a culture that encourages team members to investigate and create novel solutions for people and companies around the world.
About $4 billion of Bank of America’s $13 billion yearly technology expenditures will go into new technology projects in 2025.
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