How Citizens Bank Is Blending AI with Classic Business Banking
By Steve Cocheo, Senior Executive Editor at The Financial Brand
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Citizens Bank has been amping up its technology spending, laying a foundation so the institution can take advantage of AI and other tech tools.
Business banking overhaul. The bank’s business banking operation has been, and will be, an active player in Citizens’ multi-year “Reimagine the Bank” project, which top management unveiled in detail during yearend earnings. The project is intended to produce both expense savings as well as revenue.
Yet Manny Tocco, COO and head of business banking strategy, says that it’s critical that the human element not be lost even as technologies like agentic AI loom.
“Business customers still want to deal with people, but just like consumers, they expect decisions to be quick and digital experiences to be relatively seamless,” says Tocco, a veteran business banker.
Continuing to provide personal interactions with bankers gives business customers access to advice and expertise that they don’t want to obtain digitally, according to Tocco.
“They want a combination of the two, and one does not replace the other,” he says.
Tocco says the bank’s approach to business banking segments can be described as “classic plus innovation.” He’ll present a breakout session at The Financial Brand Forum 2026 describing how the bank makes this blend succeed.
Need to Know:
- Business banking at Citizens will increasingly combine AI tools with an emphasis on human expertise.
- AI will be focused on finding opportunities with customers and prospects.
- This changing balance isn’t lost on prospective business banking employees — increasingly they ask the bank what AI tools they will be using.
Nurturing the ‘Connective Tissue’ of Business Banking
For many client segments and for needs beyond the routine, Tocco still emphasizes the importance of bankers laying eyes on business customers. And that means feet on the ground.
“You want to do site visitations, you want to kick the tires with the management team,” says Tocco.
In fact, Tocco continues to believe that maintaining face-to-face relations with executives, as well as business influencers such as CPAs and attorneys, is part of the “connective tissue” that enables business banking success. And it brings banker and customer together for the delivery of advice.
A key benefit: Better judgments. Often, says Tocco, “the customer looks a lot better in person than they do on paper.” So, he requires local business banking leaders to accompany their relationship managers on calls a minimum of six times a week.
Why this favors customers, too. The customer’s job is to run the business, Tocco says, “Our job is to educate them on how to navigate the bank — for example, how to secure credit.”
This approach applies to companies with $1 million to $50 million in sales, that are ready to graduate into corporate banking. At the other end of the spectrum, below $1 million, is micro business banking, where many needs for service and advice can be met through Citizens branches. The branch staff work in conjunction with virtual small business relationship managers trained to help with digital engagement and routine business banking offerings.
Driving private banking cross-sell. Also, underlying the business banking effort is Citizens’ increasing efforts in private banking. Deeper business relationships naturally cultivate private banking opportunities.
Ushering in AI as a Business Banking Tool
Citizens has been preparing for AI extensively. An example: Completing its migration to cloud computing in 2025.
During yearend earnings, Brendan Coughlin, president and vice-chair, said that AI efforts to date have been small, focused pilots, along with an effort to prepare the bank for deeper dives into AI by developing control regimens. Much of the “Reimagine the Bank” effort will entail spending for AI deployment.
AI as the enabler. Thus far, business banking’s use of AI has been a work in progress, with the emphasis on AI as an enabler of faster, more thorough work by business bankers.
An example: Prepping for business visits. No business banker worth their salt is going to wing a visit to a prospect or even an existing customer without doing some spadework. The problem: Searching out data that’s in the public domain and elsewhere is an essential task, but time-consuming. Leads and suggestions for products that would fit a company’s needs often come from the effort.
“Implementing AI allows us to run down a lot of pre-call planning so our insights are of value to the business,” says Tocco.
Learn more from Manny Tocco at
The Financial Brand Forum 2026.
Don’t miss Manny Tocco’s breakout presentation, “Growing Business Banking Relationships & Revenues: Lessons from the Frontlines” — a session loaded with proven strategies and real-world examples you can put to work immediately.
Meet Manny in person live at the Forum 2026, and see his inaugural session which is bound to be standing-room-only!
How AI Will Be Changing Business Banking at Citizens
Tocco believes that as AI tools become more available to business bankers there will be a change among the workforce.
Classic bankers will lean in. “You’re going to have very good bankers who have historically operated in an analog way, and they will still be successful,” says Tocco. “They’ve got great connectivity to their markets, and they’re going to be grinding it out.”
But, on the other hand, AI will be a booster for other bankers, Tocco believes.
“Bankers who know how to leverage new AI capabilities are going to suddenly catch up. If you can do this at scale, you’re going to start to see breakout performance,” says Tocco.
As Citizens adopts such tools, “that’s where you’re going to really see a separation from other banks,” he says.
Read more: How U.S. Bank Is Retooling for a New Generation of Business Owners
Agentic AI as an Aggressive Competitive Weapon
AI approaches that unearth opportunities for Citizens will be the levers that the bank can use to obtain further business and to acquire new customers, Tocco says.
“Acquiring new business relationships, especially in the upper end of business banking, is often event-driven,” says Tocco. The banker who learns of a news development that points to new business needs for a company has a leg up on competitors.
Success beckons the informed. “Being there when something key happens is paramount, and that’s what can end up unseating a good prospect from the incumbent bank,” Tocco says.
How does this happen? Increasingly AI-driven tools can dig out buyer-intent data that points to companies that are looking for a particular financial product or service.
Some reactions to such clues might be driven by automated workflows, pushing out a query to a prospect that coincides with the need. At other times the technology could ping a banker to check in with company.
Marrying AI skills with business acumen. “The banks that are going to be able to do this well are going to be on the forward foot,” says Tocco.
Yet he believes customers will continue to expect that their business bankers understand business essentials — know their way around a balance sheet, fathom fundamental accounting principles, and show the ability to “advocate for them with the bank’s credit team.”
Read more from another Forum speaker: Is AI Learning the Job Faster Than Banks Can Redefine It?
How to Recruit for a Different Kind of Business Banker
Business banking is seeing a human resources flip: Tocco says that the task of finding candidates who can work with AI tools has rapidly evolved into having to demonstrate to prospective hires that the bank will provide the suite of AI capabilities that they want to do their jobs.
As the variety of tech tools grows, what impact will it have on business banking employment?
In the back shop, as servicing becomes more automated, Tocco anticipates that fewer support staffers will be needed.
On the front end, where businesses meet Citizens, things will be more nuanced.
Tocco sees tech like agentic AI enabling banks to gain “a little bit more scale,” as the technology cuts prep and monitoring burdens. Bankers will be able to put more time and energy into contacts with businesses.
However, he adds, “you can’t be in two places at one time,” so the necessity of a banker actually seeing customers and prospects will put a limit on trimming. The bigger the client, and the more complex their needs, the more human advice and counsel they’ll expect, says Tocco.
Read more previews about sessions at The Financial Brand Forum 2026:
- Why the Future of Banking Lies at the Intersection of AI and the Blockchain
- In 2026, ‘Value Banking’ Is the Only Differentiator Left Standing
- Storytelling Is Hot. But Is Your Bank Telling the Right Stories to the Right People?
- Reports of the Death of the Branch are Greatly Exaggerated
- Why Traditional Digital Marketing Metrics Are Failing Banks
