Bank of America: 90 percent of employees use AI assistant to enhance efficiency

More than 90 percent of Bank of America workers are using an artificial intelligence (AI) driven virtual assistant for increased efficiency with AI having a “transformative effect” on operational excellence (OPEX).

That’s according to a recent statement published by Bank of America detailing its AI successes and future plans. It came as Bank of America committed to spending US$4 billion (nearly a third of its overall technology budget for the year) on new initiatives such as AI.

“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,” said Aditya Bhasin, chief technology and information officer at Bank of America.

Bank of America’s AI success stories

Bank of America’s approach to AI includes human oversight, transparency and accountability for all outcomes, the firm stated.

Seven years ago, Bank of America launched Erica®, the first widely adopted 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. Since then, employees’ use of AI has continued to expand in various areas.

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.

Today, over 90 percent of employees use Erica for Employees, with the virtual assistant having reduced calls into the IT service desk by more than 50 percent. 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.

Leveraging the technology behind Erica, ask MERRILL® and ask PRIVATE BANK® tools help Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank teams efficiently curate information to deliver superior client experiences. 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 BANK, an increase of 1 million over 2023, helping employees more proactively connect with clients about timely and relevant opportunities.

The Academy – Bank of America’s onboarding, education and professional development organization – 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 1 million simulations last year, with many noting that practicing client conversations helps them deliver better and more consistent service.

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Enhancing employee productivity

Additional AI deployments are underway too, Bank of America said. These are helping to increase employee productivity and improve client service and include:

• Coding assistance: Bank of America software developers are using a generative AI tool to assist with code writing and optimization, through which they have experienced efficiency gains of over 20 percent.
• Contact center optimization: A modernized desktop tool leveraging AI proactively provides guided assistance to customer service specialists in Bank of America contact centers, enabling them to deliver a more personalized client experience, increase client satisfaction and reduce call handling times.
• Research summaries: An internally developed generative AI platform enables the global markets sales and trading team to search, summarize and synthesize industry-leading research and market commentary more quickly and efficiently.
• Capturing client feedback: A generative AI capability summarizes call recordings to increase call center efficiency, ensure the company remains in tune with clients’ needs and improve their experiences.

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