ING Bank is scaling its AI operations with continued digital infrastructure modernization and efficiency gains. 

“More than 90% of the bank’s AI pilots have successfully moved into production,” Chief Executive Steven van Rijswijk said during the today’s first-quarter earnings call. “More than 75% of our customer chats are fully resolved by AI without human support.” 

Additionally, more than 7 million customers received personalized AI-driven marketing campaigns, Rijswijk said. 

The bank’s decadeslong investment in tech modernization and scalable tech has enabled it to roll out AI tools quickly, he said. 

Uses of AI at ING include: 

• Software development; 

• KYC; 

• Lending; and 

• Marketing and personalization. 

Agentic AI initiatives 

For 2026, the Amsterdam-based bank plans to roll out an agentic AI solution for lending and customer experience enhancements, Rijswijk said. 

“We have agentic mortgages live in production in the Netherlands and soon rolling out to other countries,” Rijswijk said. “We are on the verge of globally rolling out conversational banking for our retail customers, which is a personal assistant with agentic experience.”

The bank is also aiming to grow its operations in the U.S. in the coming years, Marnix van Stiphout, chief operations officer and chief transformation officer, previously told FinAi News.

Controlling costs 

The use of AI in back-end operations such as lending, especially in commercial lending, has helped the bank in outpacing growth compared to its expenses, Rijswijk said. 

“With our commercial growth significantly outpacing incremental costs, we are delivering clear scalable growth, supporting meaningful improvements of our efficiency ratios in the years to come,” Rijswijk said. 

During the quarter, the $1 trillion bank reported:  

• Headcount of 62,311, down 0.6% year over year; 

• Total income of 5.8 billion euros ($6.7 billion), up 3.2% YoY; 

• Operating expense of $3.7 billion, down 3.5% YoY. 

The bank plans to further increase its AI-driven interaction with clients. “We have grown our mobile primary customer base by almost 7% [YoY]” during the quarter, Rijswijk said. 

Editor’s note: All amounts have been converted to U.S. dollars.     

Register here for the FinAi Lending Summit, set for Oct. 7-8 in Las Vegas.