Citizens Bank expects to roll out 30 projects in the next nine months as it ramps up generative AI, automation and virtual assistant offerings.  

By the second quarter of 2024, the $222 billion, Providence, R.I.-based bank expects to introduce those projects as part of its investment in its commercial banking platform, Jo Wyper, executive vice president of commercial digital operations, told Bank Automation News at Finovate Fall 2023.

The first project, AI-driven Digital Butler, had a limited launch in February, Wyper said. An updated version, including a mobile app with generative AI capabilities, will be available in the fourth quarter, she said. 

The investment in generative AI is bankwide, Wyper said, adding that she is specifically exploring areas to improve generative AI-driven predictability. 

“I’m addicted to Amazon. And I go online and it tells me more than what it thinks I might need based on my past purchases. That’s the future of banking,” she said. 

The predictability of generative AI will allow the bank to better understand its commercial and consumer clients’ needs, Wyper said.  

“By pulling together data, the amount of information we have on our customers really allows us to work out what they might need from us, about predicting new solutions and products that they might want,” she said.  

Gen AI innovation 

“At the moment, we’re working on an internal [gen AI] solution,” Wyper said. “But at the same time, I’m currently exploring a buy option with one of our core vendors.” 

Citizens has built a lot of its products in-house, as it has “a growing set of engineers that are becoming more skilled,” Wyper said. However, sometimes partnering or contracting with service providers makes more sense. 

On the consumer-facing side, Citizens’ engineers built its mobile banking app. On the other hand, the bank teamed up with embedded payments platform Wisetack to create Citizens Pay in June. 

“Sometimes we need to rely on partnership fintech and vendors, and that’s where we can build the connective tissue between these applications,” she said.