Artificial intelligence drives sales and efficiency in major banks, Fortune study finds

Data released by Fortune reveals that artificial intelligence adoption is already delivering significant commercial benefits for major financial institutions. At Wells Fargo, licensed bankers working in branches who rely on technology support have seen a 31% increase in product sales, including new deposit accounts and credit cards.

The information was shared by Saul Van Beurden, the bank’s head of AI, as part of Fortune’s AIQ 75 series, which examines how companies integrate technology into their daily operations.

How banks are using AI

Wells Fargo has provided Microsoft 365 Copilot to 148,000 employees. Retail bankers and investment advisors use the system to prepare for client meetings. According to Van Beurden, client referrals to AI-supported advisors have doubled.

Projects are approved based on return on investment. Each application must generate revenue, increase productivity, reduce costs, or mitigate risks, and each area has a leader responsible for the entire cycle, from conception to large-scale implementation.

What is an AI copilot

An AI copilot is an assistant integrated with work tools such as email, spreadsheets, and presentations. It summarizes documents, suggests text, and organizes information, while the professional reviews and makes the final decision. In practice, a branch manager can request a summary of a client’s history before a meeting and arrive with an offer better suited to their profile.

Other banks are also measuring results

At Bank of America, the EricaAssist agent has been made available to more than 18,000 attendants and has reduced the average call time by nearly one minute.

At Capital One, attendants edit only one-fifth of the text produced by AI in case summaries, according to executive Prem Natarajan. At BNY, 70% of employees use AI regularly, and the bank offers training at three levels for its 47,000 employees.

This trend is global. According to consulting firm BCG, financial institutions are expected to invest 2% of their revenue in AI this year, matching the level of investment in the technology sector.

Impact on professionals

The 31% result was released by the bank itself and refers to licensed bankers in branches, not all employees. However, it illustrates the type of tasks where AI has been applied: meeting preparation, document summarization, proposal writing, and customer service.

Professionals in other fields can follow a similar approach, using AI daily for repetitive tasks and having humans review the results. Banks themselves emphasize safeguards: Citi, for example, encourages experimentation within defined limits to prevent errors.

Next steps in the evolution of banking AI

Bank of America plans to move from assistants that collaborate with employees to autonomous agentic systems, but is taking a cautious approach at this stage. Morgan Stanley is working with orchestrated systems, where multiple agents work together in workflows.

According to Fortune, the next phase will involve tools that execute entire steps of a process, while banks monitor results and risks.