Academy Bank is leaning on employees to suggest AI applications throughout operations.
The Kansas City, Mo.-based $3.4 billion bank created its Idea Exchange platform where employees can pitch ideas for emerging tech deployment, Chief Executive Paul Holewinski told Bank Automation News.
Through the program, created in 2022, “we have collected 120 ideas … [and] nearly 75% of those are AI- and automation-related,” he said.

After an idea is pitched, a team from across Academy Bank evaluates it on what kind of tech can solve the problem, does the bank have that readiness and how critical it is to operations, Holewinski said.
Existing AI use cases at Academy Bank include: at Academy Bank include:
- Providing insights to customers and aiding them in financial planning through its My Finance360 platform;
- Improving chatbot accuracy and speed to provide self-service capabilities to clients; and
- KYC.
“Sometimes we don’t need AI, [a process] can be done with [robotic process automation], or maybe we can eliminate the process altogether or migrate it to a new platform for more efficiency,” Holewinski said. The bank evaluates each pitch deciding whether they are possible.






