Big banks say AI is now changing daily operations

Large U.S. banks used their Q2 2026 investor updates to report broader deployment of AI across internal operations, with Bank of America saying more than 200,000 employees now use AI-enabled tools. The banks did not disclose a combined spending figure or quantified savings, which leaves the financial return on these programs largely unproven from the outside.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told investors Tuesday that employees are using AI for productivity, software development support and agentic workflows. He said staff generate more than 400,000 prompts a day across those tools.

The bank had more than 300 approved AI use cases as of last week, including 114 generative AI use cases, according to Moynihan. Of those, 34 had been fully put into production inside the bank’s operations.

Moynihan said the tools are intended to help relationship managers prepare for client meetings, improve developer efficiency and increase consistency and productivity across the workforce. CFO Alastair Borthwick also pointed to AI as a contributor to adviser productivity, particularly in wealth management, where Bank of America earlier this year introduced an AI tool to help advisers access Salesforce CRM data.

Adoption claims are getting bigger

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser gave a broader usage claim during the bank’s Q2 call, saying nearly 90% of Citi employees are using its AI tools. Fraser said the adoption is helping productivity, client experience and product development speed, while tying the rollout to lessons learned from Citi’s wider technology transformation work.

Citi appointed Brian Saluzzo as CIO in March, with the bank aiming to expand AI use across the organization. The company did not provide a specific count of AI use cases or a dollar estimate for productivity gains in the comments cited.

BNY CEO Robin Vince told investors Wednesday that AI is adding value through employee productivity, product development, client experiences and new capabilities built around the bank’s platforms and data. He described AI as a long-term value driver for clients, employees and shareholders, though no specific financial impact was disclosed.

Wells Fargo also moved AI further into employee workflows this week with the launch of AI Teammate. CEO Charles Scharf said the bank’s AI investments are contributing to productivity improvements.

JPMorgan gives a more cautious read

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told investors the bank has nearly 1,000 live AI use cases across functions including risk, fraud, marketing and document reading. Dimon said AI should create efficiency in parts of the company, but he framed customers as the main beneficiaries rather than shareholders in the near term.

Dimon also said AI is costly and that he does not expect it to lift company margins anytime soon as usage expands. That is a useful counterweight to the broader bank narrative: adoption numbers are rising, but the expense curve and measurable bottom-line effect remain unclear.

For enterprise AI vendors, the bank commentary shows that financial services buyers are no longer limiting AI to pilots and back-office experimentation. The deployments now touch developers, advisers, risk teams, finance teams and client-facing staff. The next test is whether banks can turn usage into measurable operating leverage, rather than another large technology cost line with productivity claims attached.

This story draws on original reporting from CIO Dive.