Citizens Bank has deployed generative AI and automation in operations for activities including coding, customer service and fraud detection, and the efficiency gains are adding up. 

“We completed a pilot using Microsoft Pilot … and the results were outstanding,” Michael Ruttledge, chief information officer and head of enterprise technology and security at Citizens, told Bank Automation News.  

With generative AI in place, the Providence, R.I.-based bank is seeing a 10% to 20% productivity boost, he said. 

The bank is tapping generative AI to help its developers with the following:

• Documentation; 

• Code refactoring, or code conversion from one language to another like Java to Python; and 

• Software testing. 

Using gen AI to help software engineers reduces time to market for new solutions, which “allows us to do more with our current engineering team,” Ruttledge said.  

Cloud providers

The $219 billion bank is working with its cloud providers, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, to deploy large language models and gen AI models throughout its operations, Ruttledge said. 

“Our plans right now are not to build our own LLM models,” Ruttledge said. “We’re using best-in-class models from our technology providers.” 

To hear more from Citizens’ Michael Ruttledge, register for the upcoming complimentary webinar presented by Bank Automation News: “The future of open banking: Payments meet data,” on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m. ET. Register for the webinar here.