Bank of America: Is AI Driving Employment Growth?

Concerns about AI replacing human workers continue to intensify, particularly among younger generations only just entering the workforce.

According to a survey conducted for the King's Trust, three-quarters of people aged between 16 and 25 are worried about their future careers, with 59% expressing specific concern about AI's impact on employment opportunities.

However, Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, sees things differently.

Speaking on the This Is Working podcast recently, Brian explained that while AI will transform banking operations, he does not anticipate it causing significant job losses. Instead, he believes that the technology can be a catalyst for growth and employment expansion.

"People wrote … in 1969 that there would be no managers left in business because the computer itself would eliminate the need for managers, because they just moved information. Well, guess what? We have 20,000 managers today at Bank of America," he says.

"And we were told in 1969, there was going to be no manufacturing left in the US, there were going to be no jobs left, the computers were going to take it away, that Japan was going to take over. You go through all that stuff, and then we doubled the amount of people who worked in the United States in 50 years."

AI assistant reduces help desk calls

Bank of America has positioned itself at the forefront of AI adoption within the banking sector, investing substantially in AI across its operations.

The bank was one of the earliest to develop of its own digital assistant, which underwent pilot testing in 2017 before it was fully deployed in 2018.

The AI assistant, named Erica, functions as both an external customer-facing tool and as 'Erica for Employees', designed to automate HR, IT and administrative tasks.

According to Bank of America, the decision to initially deploy the AI assistant to employees during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was driven by the need to maintain operational efficiency during unprecedented disruption.

Richard Knafelz, Managing Director and Employee Experience Technology Executive at Bank of America, explains how Erica streamlines employee workflows.

"It knows the employee that it's dealing with, so it doesn't have to ask all kinds of upfront questions. It understands the context and who you are, and it can take it from there. It's doing some pretty complex integration behind the scenes, calling to the different systems to understand what devices you have, and then doing the unlock."

According to the bank, Erica has helped to reduce IT helpdesk calls by more than 50%, with around 90% of staff now using the platform on a daily basis.

Recruiting for AI capabilities

As Bank of America prepares to continue its AI expansion, the organisation is prioritising the recruitment of talent with experience in emerging technologies, as well as younger candidates who can be trained up to use AI applications.

Naturally, the competition for such talent is intense.

In an interview with CBS News, Brian reveals that the company had hired 2,000 Gen Z candidates from a pool of 200,000 applicants.

Addressing young people's concerns about AI's impact on employment, he said: "If you ask them if they're scared, they say they are. And I understand that. But I say, harness it … It'll be your world ahead of you".