AI is sometimes portrayed in the media as the great job eliminator, but leaders of financial institutions don’t see it that way. 

Many workers find it difficult to trust AI because they feel the tech might take over their jobs, Ted Paris, head of analytics, intelligence and AI at TD Bank, said during the FinAi Banking Summit on March 2 in Denver. 

AI can assume repetitive tasks for workers in entry-level jobs, Paris said. In that instance, AI is helping workers and not taking their jobs 

“When you think about it as a ladder, it’s not cutting the ladder,” Paris said. “It’s just really raising the bar.” 

According to data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, finance and insurance related job openings fell to 134,000 in December, down 75% since the peak of 554,000 in 2022. December’s total is the lowest recorded since February 2012. 

AI benefits go well beyond entry-level jobs at Grasshopper Bank, assisting employees at all levels, Director of Engineering and Platforms Andrew Braun said during the event on March 3. 

The bank built an AI agent in an afternoon that helps employees with search functions or writing tasks, he said. 

AI helps FIs build simple frameworks for ordinary tasks, testing them and shipping the features out quickly, Braun said, adding that fewer software developers are needed to perform similar tasks than before AI was used. 

Training employees 

Financial institutions believe that with AI assisting their teams, they can scale operations without increasing headcount, Asmau Ahmed, chief AI and data officer at Varo Bank, said during the event, adding that Varo is training employees to use new tools to boost productivity. 

ALSO READ: Empathy, education, experimentation crucial for AI training 

“We built AI Academy where we trained everybody,” Ahmed said. “This is mandatory training on the basics of AI.” 

The bank also trained employees to enter prompts to obtain desired data, she said. 

“I am AI-first, but I’m also unapologetically human-first,” Ahmed said. The bank aims to train employees with a top-down and bottom-up approach, giving them lessons that fit their job functions so that no one is left behind, she said.  

Read coverage from FinAi Banking Summit here.