But it's also bringing on new challenges. Bank leaders say they are struggling to keep up with AI-powered cyberattacks, and they're increasingly asked by analysts when all the investments will pay off.
Here's what we know about how Wall Street banks are embracing AI.
JPMorgan ChaseJPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon
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JPMorgan Chase has a technology budget of $18 billion, with much of it going toward making sure it's a leader and early mover in AI.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is a "tremendous" user of the bank's generative AI suite. The bank has rolled out its proprietary genAI platform to over 200,000 employees. And with about 100 more tools in the pipeline, JPMorgan is seeking to reengineer workflows for everyone from coders to portfolio managers.
JPMorgan has reportedly given employees the option to use its in-house AI tools to assist in writing year-end performance reviews.
Executives at America's largest bank gave an inside look at how it's training employees to use its tools and how they're using them to deliver measurable results.
Citigroup has also been aggressively accelerating its AI plans. Over the summer, the bank doubled down on its AI ambitions with new leadership at the helm of its tech transformation.
In mid-October, Citi CEO Jane Fraser said that nearly 180,000 employees in 83 countries have access to the bank's proprietary AI tools and have used them almost 7 million times this year.
Its generative AI tools have saved 100,000 developer hours a week with automated code reviews — "a very meaningful productivity uplift," she said during the firm's third-quarter earnings call.
The bank launched the pilot of agentic AI for 5,000 colleagues in September.
"It allows complex, multi-step tasks to be completed with a single prompt, and the early results are very promising, and we'll expand access to this in the months ahead," said Fraser. "Finally, we have launched a firm-wide effort to systematically embed AI in our processes end-to-end to drive further efficiencies, reduce risk, and improve client experience."
Like JPMorgan, Citi is also telling employees to use AI for performance reviews, Fraser recently told Bloomberg in an interview.
One of Citi's top tech executives, Shadman Zafar, outlined the bank's four-phased AI strategy and how it will "change how we work for decades to come."
He said he would like to be at least $8 billion, but "I can't afford it because I've got to deliver returns," he said at a conference in early October.
A definitive statement about how AI will affect Goldman came from a memo to employees in October announcing the third iteration of the bank's cross-bank initiative OneGS. The memo said the plan would leverage AI will drive efficiency at the firm, slow hiring, and result in a "limited reduction" of roles.
Goldman, like its peers, has been rolling out tools, including an internal AI assistant to all employees this summer.
Business Insider talked to employees about how they were using AI.
Goldman's top partners and Solomon are eager to see AI rev up their businesses. From realizing internal productivity gains to capturing more business as clients look to raise money in anticipation of AI development and acquisitions, here's what the top echelon is expecting.
There is no AI without data, and there is no data strategy at Goldman without its chief data officer, Neema Raphael. Raphael gave Business Insider an inside look at how his roughly 500-person team melds with the rest of the bank to get the most out of its data.
Morgan Stanley's CFO, Sharon Yeshaya, lifted the curtain on some of the firm's progress on AI during its earnings call last month.
She highlightedDevGen.AI, a tool that, from January to June, Business Insider previously reported, had saved developers more than 280,000 hours, or 11,666 days they would have previously dedicated to deciphering outdated code.
Parable, an interactive tool that analyzes and summarizes data, and LeadIQ, an AI-powered lead distribution platform that matches users of its workplace and self-directed platforms to the bank's financial advisors, were also spotlighted in the call.
A survey of Morgan Stanley's interns also gave a peek into just how popular and useful AI has been for the industry's youngest cohort. ChatGPT is their favorite tool by far — with 72% of Morgan Stanley's interns said they use it daily or several times a week. The bank was early to have a partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
Morgan Stanley also spoke with Business Insider about bringing employees' AI ideas to life. Here's a look at that process.
Bank of America's AI rollout is also well underway.
The bank's CEO Brian Moynihan says its use of AI is already embedded across the firm, from consumer banking to institutional clients. Its virtual assistant, Erica, handled 2 million customer interactions in a single day and can now answer 700 types of questions — up from 210 a year ago. Executives said they'll share more details on the bank's AI strategy at its investor day on November 5.
Rob Pascal, the bank's chief experience officer, previously detailed how the bank's internal-facing AI assistant helps bankers collect, record, and review client data.