Welcome to the AI-Suite

Banks are increasingly appointing senior executives to oversee AI projects, reports American Banker. Whether they are called “chief AI officers” or something else, more and more banks have C-suite managers dedicated to AI or machine learning. 

The rise of C-level AI officers underscores the importance of ethics and governance in AI implementation, with banks signaling their commitment to responsible AI use internally and externally. 

U.S. Bank Chief Digital Officer Dominic Venturo is one of banking’s early AI executives. He oversees innovation, research, and development in addition to the bank’s mobile apps, websites, and enterprise solutions. Machine learning, he noted, has been utilized in the industry for more than a decade, particularly in fraud and risk management. Used properly, he said, artificial intelligence can save an organization thousands of people hours. 

So what does a chief AI officer do? Centralizing AI leadership can facilitate innovation and efficiency within large organizations. Venturo’s team at U.S. Bank educates business units on AI possibilities and triages project requests based on feasibility, scalability, and commercial viability, while emphasizing the importance of using AI efficiently and ethically. 

U.S. institutions foresee internal, non-customer-facing deployments of generative AI as the most likely application in the next year, aligning with efforts to enhance operational efficiency and risk reduction through AI technology. 

“We have opportunities to make our processes more efficient, simplify operations, reduce risk, [and] reduce errors,” Venturo said.