Why Are the World's Top Banks Hiring Chief AI Officers?

Multiple banks are racing to fill the often newly created position of Chief AI Officer (CAIO), as some of the world’s biggest banks look to deploy and scale AI across operations. 

Big banks are increasingly spending large amounts of money scaling AI, with the Bank of America spending US$4bn of its US$13bn tech budget on “strategic growth” that includes AI, according to a Forbes report.

Its CEO, Brian Moynihan recently told investors that more than 200,000 of its employees are actively using "AI-enabled capabilities". 

Recently, both Bank of America and Bank of Ireland have hired for new roles centered around AI, following on from Lloyds and HSBC, which announced AI-centric roles across the banking groups earlier this year. 

Appointing AI chiefs to lead transformation

The Bank of England, in an article called Financial Stability in Focus, says finance is among the sectors benefiting from AI as a source of innovation.

It says the technology is already helping many financial institutions to automate and optimise their existing internal processes, such as code generation, as well as their interactions with customers.

As AI is increasingly deployed across global banking institutions, many are clamouring for senior leaders with AI expertise to head up operations. 

Global CAIO appointments in banking

In Ireland, Bank of Ireland recently appointed Prag Sharma as its CAIO.

Prag is joining from Citigroup, where he established and led its Global AI Centre of Excellence, delivering end‑to‑end AI‑powered products across 96 countries. He will be taking up the new role in October 2026.

Ciarán Coyle, Group Chief Operating Officer, Bank of Ireland, says of the appointment: “AI is a core part of our updated strategy to 2028. We are delighted to welcome Prag Sharma as our new CAIO, a critical appointment in the delivery of the strategy.

“With a proven track record of delivering impactful AI globally, Prag brings the vision, leadership and expertise required to safely accelerate our AI transformation and unlock meaningful value across the Group. Prag’s appointment also reflects our ambition to position Bank of Ireland at the forefront of responsible AI innovation and adoption.”

In the US, Bank of America named Kevin Milsom ​as Head of Platforms AI Transformation, ​according to a memo seen by Reuters, penned by Ashok Krishnan, ⁠Head of Platforms within the global ​markets group.

Kevin has worked at Bank of America since 2016 and has previously worked at Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies and Credit Suisse. 

Earlier this year, HSBC announced David Rice will be appointed as HSBC’s first CAIO. Lloyds announced in April 2026 that Sameer Gupta will join as its Chief Data and AI Officer to lead how AI is further embedded across Lloyds Banking Group.

AI integrations at Bank of America

The Bank of America’s CEO, Brian Moynihan, said during the company’s Q2 Earnings call that more than 200,000 of its employees are actively using AI-enabled capabilities. 

He told investors that these range from productivity tools to more advanced agentic workflows and coding support and highlighted that its associates are generating more than 400,000 prompts a day. 

Brian added, on July 14 2026: “And as of last week, we had over 300 AI use cases approved – all of which have good economics – of which 114 are live generative AI use cases. 34 of those cases are fully implemented, and we see new capabilities coming on every week”.

Big banks bet big on AI

Bank of America spends US$4bn of its US$13bn tech budget on “strategic growth” that includes AI. It isn’t alone; Goldman Sachs spent about US$6bn in 2025 on technology initiatives with a focus on internal tools and of JP Morgan’s US$19.2bn technology budget, US$1.2bn is allocated for AI, according to information published by Forbes. 

Morgan Stanley forecasts about US$570bn in global AI-related debt issuance in 2026, according to the US business magazine. 

In a usually fiscally conservative sector, the major banks are doubling down on AI on multiple fronts; investing billions into internal AI technologies while underwriting massive debt issuances to fund the AI infrastructure buildout. 

In an opinion column by Robert Armstrong called “Wall Street banks are AI stocks now”, the Financial Times' US Finance Editor wrote that the Bank of America was currently outperforming the S&P 500, but, like other top firms, its growth and profits are now pegged to AI. He wrote: “All these sectors have lived, and could die, with AI.”