Bank Of America Bets Big On AI With $4 Billion Investment—And It's Already Paying Off

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) is ramping up its investment in artificial intelligence, planning to spend $4 billion on AI initiatives over the next year—nearly a third of its annual $13 billion tech budget.

The company disclosed the figure in a recent release, noting that both internal and customer-facing tools are already showing strong returns, ranging from cost reductions to improved user experiences.

Benzinga reached out to Bank of America for more details, but the bank was unable to comment by the time of publication. That being said, there are many interesting tidbits to highlight in the press release itself.

Among major U.S. banks, Bank of America appears to be leading the charge in deploying AI at scale. Its consumer chatbot Erica—launched seven years ago—has handled over 2.5 billion interactions and now serves 20 million active users. Meanwhile, sibling products like askMerrill and askPrivate Banking saw more than 23 million interactions in 2024, up by over a million from the previous year.

Enterprise AI Is Catching Up Fast

While consumer-facing AI has been in place for years, BofA's enterprise AI rollout is more recent—and more ambitious. New internal data reveals just how widely the bank is applying generative AI across its operations:

• Internal Support (IT): Erica for Employees, an internal AI chatbot adapted from the public-facing version, is now used by over 90% of BofA's 213,000 employees—reducing IT help desk requests by more than 50%.
• Developer Productivity: Engineers using generative AI coding assistants are seeing up to 20% improvements in productivity, helping them move faster across technical workflows.
• Meeting Preparation: AI is helping employees generate meeting prep materials for client engagements, saving tens of thousands of hours annually—time that's redirected toward client-facing work.
• Customer Support: Contact center agents use AI tools to deliver faster, more personalized service, which has reduced average call times.
• Research Access (Sales & Trading): Sales and trading teams use a homegrown generative AI tool to summarize BofA research and market updates more efficiently, helping them move quickly in volatile markets.

Why This Matters

Other institutions like JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS), and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) are also building AI-powered tools for employees and customers. But Bank of America stands out for its transparency and measurable results.

Cutting IT support demand in half, improving developer velocity, and enhancing customer satisfaction are all indicators that this isn't hype—it's execution.

And yet, this is just the beginning. The generative AI transformation in banking is still in its early innings. What we're seeing now is likely just a preview of how financial services will operate in the next decade.

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