Wells Fargo reduces headcount 7% amid continued AI implementation
$1.85T bank reported $6.4B in Q2 net income, up 14.3% YoY
In its efforts to increase efficiency and reduce headcount, Wells Fargo continues to invest in AI and in the second quarter launched Advisor Gateway, an AI-enabled desktop platform, to support the bank’s thousands of financial advisers.
The AI-driven Advisory Gateway “gives advisers better tools to serve clients and grow their practices,” Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said today on the company’s Q2 earnings call.
“Investments like this are improving productivity, strengthening the client experience and driving improved adviser hiring and retention.”
Advisor Gateway, a multiyear investment of about $1 billion by Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management (WIM) group, unifies more than 200 proprietary and third-party tools. The platform launched May 7.
The $1.85 trillion bank saw ROI in adviser productivity as of late June, the bank previously told FinAi News.
Increased efficiency, reduced headcount
Wells Fargo’s companywide efficiency ratio improved to 60% from 64% in Q2 2025, according to today’s earnings report. The company reduced headcount to 197,466 as of June 30, down 7.2% year over year.
“We’ve got a lot of room to go to continue to make the place more efficient and in part that drives headcount down,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Santomassimo said on today’s earnings call. “AI helps us get at aspects of that in a different way or faster than maybe in the past.
“As you peel back the onion, there’s more opportunity to make things more automated to improve the client experience.”
BY THE NUMBERS: The bank reported in Q2:
- Net income of $6.4 billion, up 16.6% YoY;
- Revenue of $22.6 billion, up 8.6% YoY;
- 38 million active digital users, up 3.8% YoY; and
- 33.7 million active mobile users, up 5% YoY.
The San Francisco-based bank also reported a technology, telecommunication and equipment expense — which includes AI expenses — of $1.5 billion, up 13.2% YoY.
OF NOTE: Wells Fargo announced in March that former U.S. Bank AI and data leader Prageeth Sandakalum was hired as executive director of product management. More recently, Andre Mansour from Google joined the WIM team to lead the group’s AI efforts.
Shares of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) were down 2.7% from market open to $85.30 at 3:45 p.m. ET today. The bank has a market capitalization of $260.9 billion.
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