Why Bank of America's CEO Thinks AI Will Drive Job Growth

Employee anxieties around AI are rising, particularly in young people. 

A survey conducted for the King’s Trust found that three quarters of people aged between 16 and 25 are concerned about their future careers, with 59% expressing concern specifically about AI. 

But Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, is not worried. 

Speaking on the This is Working podcast, Bryan shared that he believes that, while AI will disrupt the way the banking industry works, he does not see it leading to significant job losses. 

Brian said: "People wrote … in 1969 that there would be no managers left in business because the computer itself would eliminate the need for managers, because they just moved information. 

“Well, guess what? We have 20,000 managers today at Bank of America. And we were told in 1969, there was going to be no manufacturing left in the US, there were going to be no jobs left, the computers were going to take it away, that Japan was going to take over. 

“You go through all that stuff, and then we doubled the amount of people who worked in the United States in 50 years.”

Deploying AI Assistants 

Bank of America is investing in AI significantly, with plans to deploy it across its wider operations. 

The company was one of the first in the banking industry to develop its own digital assistant, which was piloted in 2017 and rolled out in 2018. 

The AI assistant – which is named Erica – exists both as an external tool for customers and as ‘Erica for Employees’, used to automate HR, IT and administrative tasks. 

Bank of America has said it decided to first roll out the AI assistant to employees during the pandemic, to maintain operational efficiency. 

Richard Knafelz, Managing Director and Employee Experience Technology Executive at Bank of America, discussed how Erica aims to make things more straightforward for employees in an interview with American Banker: “It knows the employee that it's dealing with, so it doesn't have to ask all kinds of upfront questions.

"It understands the context and who you are, and it can take it from there. It's doing some pretty complex integration behind the scenes, calling to the different systems to understand what devices you have, and then doing the unlock.”

Erica has reportedly reduced IT help desk calls in the company by over 50%, and is used by over 90% of staff to streamline tasks. 

Hiring for AI capabilities

To prepare for its AI growth, Bank of America is prioritising hiring talent that has experience with emerging technologies and younger talent that can be trained up in AI – but the competition is high. 

In an interview with CBS news, Brian shared that the company had hired 2,000 Gen Z candidates from a pool of 200,000 people. 

When discussing young people’s views on the impact of AI on work, he said: “If you ask them if they’re scared, they say they are. And I understand that. But I say, harness it … It’ll be your world ahead of you”.

Brian also shared that the bank wants “to drive more growth” from its AI investments saying that “the efficiencies from AI will be spent to keep growing the company”.