We’re Speeding Past the Tipping Point of Gen AI in Banking
By Ben Udell, SVP, Product Marketing and Innovation at Marquis
Simple Subscribe
Subscribe Now!
Executive Summary
- Citi’s plan to train hundreds of thousands of employees on how to use GenAI tools is an acknowledgement that AI adoption needs to be encouraged and supported, not rationed
- Citi is also recognizing an important reality: Its best employees are probably already using GenAI tools on their own, and that the bank’s smartest strategy is to shape and refine that usage to its advantage.
- Citi’s move also signals that a workforce that’s enabled and supported in day-to-day use of GenAI will soon be a competitive necessity for all banks and financial institutions, whatever their size.
Citi just made a massive move that every bank and credit union leader should be watching closely. Citi is requiring 175,000 employees to take a training program titled “Asking Smart Questions – Prompting Like a Pro”.
If they move fast enough, it’s possible that Citi will soon have more AI trained and deployed bankers than the rest of the industry, combined. While the training itself may only take 10 to 30 minutes, what’s more important is that Citi is clearly signaling that GenAI tools are now part of every employee’s workday.
This commitment to GenAI at scale redefines next steps for our industry’s adoption of AI. Every banking leader needs to understand that this is an investment in their employees that you can make, too. Citi’s path forward is not dependent on being a large financial investment or technically savvy. Every bank or credit union, regardless of asset size, can take the same approach. The keys are the desire and willingness to welcome change management and commit to innovation that is so clearly on the near-term horizon.
Over the past two years, I’ve spoken in front of or trained employees from hundreds of banks and credit unions. This includes large events from The Financial Brand Forum to small state banking associations and credit union leagues. The list includes the Graduate School of Banking at Wisconsin, the American Banking Association’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking, and various state credit union events. It’s very possible that 1 in 10 banks or credit unions have had someone listen to me talk about or demonstrate the power of gen AI. That’s thousands of bankers. And I’ve learned a lot.
This experience, combined with Citi’s announcement, gives me a powerful perspective on the risk and opportunity when large national players take bold steps with AI. Here’s what you can do about it today to catch up.
Dig deeper:
- The Silent Competition Is Winning: Are You Even in the Game?
- Four AI Strategies (With Prompts) to Make Your Comms Better and Faster
- Tactics, Not Targets: A Smarter Approach to Checking Account Growth
Gen AI’s Revolution Is Underway – With or Without You
One week, we’re told AI is the most transformative technology of our time. The next, we’re hit with headlines about how companies are failing to see returns on their AI investments. Every week there’s an announcement that a company is slowing their hiring because of AI, or worse, laying off employees.
“The parallels between the banking industry’s adoption of the internet and the evolution of AI are striking,” says Paul Katz, President & CEO, Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Banks initially approached the internet era with cautious exploration, piloting online payments and e-statements, before moving into full-scale integration with internet banking. Today, while the pace of AI innovation is significantly faster, we’re seeing a familiar pattern: deliberate evaluation, controlled experimentation, and careful risk management before broader adoption.”
In my sessions, around 50% of banks and credit unions report having an AI Usage Policy. It’s important to distinguish between having a policy versus doing meaningful work with AI. The statistics show most banks and credit unions are starting to deploy AI. The reality is that giving a small team access to AI tools is not real deployment. At best, it’s the first step. At worst, it creates a poor first impression that makes future adoption harder.
Most banks and credit unions need to pause large investments or “big” strategy in their AI journey. The real shift is driven by employees using gen AI tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot every day, as they find new ways to do their jobs better.
Amazing gen AI innovation happens at each desk, not at an organizational level. Faster email drafting. Smarter summarization. Better communication prep. Internal documentation. Compliance reviews. Customer scripts. Research. Meeting notes. Tasks that save 15 minutes each, accumulate to hours or days of added productivity at the end of the month.
That’s the nuance I see getting lost in the headlines. When you apply incremental efficiency across an entire workforce, the results are game-changing. Citi understands this. They’re giving each employee a powerful tool to work better specifically for their needs.
Want more insights like this? Check out Candescent’s content portal: Illuminating Insights in Digital-First Banking
The Employee Impact, and ROI, is Astronomical
This is about employee experience, and dollars and sense. I’ve found less than 5% of bank and credit union employees have received real training focused on improving their work performance with GenAI. This is what makes Citi’s announcement such a tipping point for our industry. Anyone who’s truly using GenAI tools will tell you they save hours of work a week, create better outputs, and are stronger professionals.
Imagine being 20 percent more productive and having 20 percent better performance. That’s the power of gen AI. Apply that logic to the 10, 100, 1,000, or 10,000 employees. Factor in the performance impact internally and with your customers or members. This is exponential growth.
Many of your employees are now realizing that you’re asking them to do eight hours of work that could be done in one with GenAI. High-performing employees won’t tolerate being denied access to these tools. That’s not just frustrating, it’s demoralizing. How would your lenders respond if you only allowed the use of calculators? How would the marketing team respond if you required all work to be produced by a typewriter? How would your customers respond if you had no online or mobile banking?
Most GenAI tools today cost around $30 per user per month. That’s less than what most banks and credit unions spend on a cell phone stipend or mileage between meetings. If the average monthly employee cost is $30, your breakeven should happen immediately. Plus, how much is improved communication internally or with customers worth, or personalized learning paths, or upskilling early talent?
This Is the New Digital Divide and You’re Creating It
One of the more surprising patterns I see in banks and credit unions is who is allowed to explore AI tools — and who isn’t. There are legitimate concerns over trust in data and privacy, responsible use, hallucinations and factual information. Those are reasonable and fair. But senior leaders and compliance teams, who express the most concern about AI, often haven’t tested the tools themselves. They’re making decisions based on abstract risk, not firsthand understanding.
Employees you trusted to handle PII and be accountable for their work before ChatGPT hit the scene are now suddenly seen as untrustworthy when it comes to AI. It’s mind boggling how many FIs are unwilling to even give senior level leaders access. Citi trusts their bankers and tellers to use AI more responsibly than most banks and credit unions trust senior leaders or lifelong employees.
I’ve also experienced that many bank and credit union executive teams are hesitant to give access to frontline tellers, bankers, and branch managers. The employees who are “digitally native”, and likely the most frequent users of AI, are being left out of GenAI enablement efforts. If you want to accelerate your AI usage, start with your strongest users.
Many employees are using AI anyway, so the lack of clarity only creates tension. One banker told me they log in to the Wi-Fi from the coffee shop across the parking lot so they can use ChatGPT. If your employees are using AI without training or structure, you’re not reducing risk by denying access, you’re increasing it. Citi may have just exponentially reduced their AI risk with their training plan.
Responsible Doesn’t Mean Inactive
Citi is winning by leading with engagement and change management. Change management requires leadership engagement before transformation becomes mandatory. If your senior leadership team isn’t paying attention now, they’ll be completely unprepared when the stakes are higher and the transformation is non-negotiable. Bank and credit union executives will not become AI experts overnight, but they do have a responsibility to understand how AI has and will impact their institution.
“AI is in the process of reshaping every level of a financial institution, from the boardroom to the branch,” says Katz. “Clearly, the pace of change and sense of urgency varies greatly across banks and their leadership teams. We’re developing a range of immersive, hands-on programming designed to serve the entire organization regardless of where they are on this journey. Institutions are moving forward with thoughtful, practical steps toward responsible AI adoption and we’re committed to being a strategic partner every step of the way.”
Citi’s path forward is bold. It’s decisive. And it sends a clear message: The largest most risk-aware FIs are no longer asking if AI will impact their business. They’re preparing their entire workforce for how, while generating a massive competitive advantage. Luckily, it’s transformation you can start today.
