Over the last few years, JPMorgan Chase has been undergoing a major evolution as it works to infuse artificial intelligence across all areas of the bank. With CEO Jamie Dimon’s blessing and encouragement, the nation’s largest bank is working to create a transformative in-house AI program. This program has never been more critical to accomplishing those long-term growth ambitions. With a history of navigating challenges to achieve record profits in seven of the last ten years, Dimon’s strategic vision is now focused on harnessing AI to reshape the future of banking.
The bank’s artificial intelligence initiative, called the LLM Suite, acts as a foundation of this transformation. Updated every eight weeks, the LLM Suite is being constantly trained with new data from thousands of large databases and software applications. This powerful new tool will enable JPMorgan Chase employees to harness the power of AI to save time, boost productivity and simplify work processes.
In 2023, JPMorgan Chase laid the groundwork for this AI initiative by granting employees access to OpenAI’s models through the LLM Suite. This customized corporate use of ChatGPT powers employees to write emails and get the gist of long reports in record time. Yet the bank is currently pushing ahead with the deployment of agentic AI. This more advanced form of AI can handle complicated multistep tasks and will dramatically improve operational productivity.
Waldron pointed out that the introduction of AI technology will fundamentally change the makeup of the workforce at JPMorgan Chase. He announced that the operations workforce could be reduced by at least 10% over the next five years through attrition. This transition will occur as AI becomes more embedded into every-day tasks.
Currently about 250,000 employees at JPMorgan Chase are eligible to actively use the AI platform. Yet, branch and call center staff have been excluded from this new initiative. The bank’s ultimate goal is to provide each employee with their own, customized AI agents. It’ll streamline behind-the-scenes processes and help make sure that AI concierges personalize every client experience.
Even though AI can seem like magic, Waldron emphasized the drastic transformation in workflow that it introduces. His description resonated with how investment banking analysts would have spent countless hours overnight crafting these sorts of carefully choreographed presentations. Today, however, systems such as LLM Suite can accomplish those tasks in only a few seconds.
“You can imagine in the past how that would have been done; we would’ve had teams of investment banking analysts working long hours at night to do this.” – Derek Waldron
Waldron imagines a future where, as AI agents become smarter and more integrated in JPMorgan Chase’s infrastructure, they start assuming more responsibilities. This evolution will fundamentally change all facets of operations.
“In an AI world, you’ll still have people at the top who are managing and have relationships with clients, but many, many of the processes underneath are now being done by AI systems.” – Derek Waldron
Avi Gesser talks about his role at JPMorgan Chase as an innovation advocate. He mentioned that employees are starting to understand what’s possible with these tools. He noted that when people first experience how these technologies fit into their workflows, they often see the time and money savings for themselves. Recently coming to this realization usually spurs the creation of better products.
“People are starting to see what these tools can do.” – Avi Gesser
Gesser touched on how critical implementation and regulatory frameworks are to achieve the benefits that AI can have. He explained that when all of these pieces come together, firms can achieve, with a strong belief, drastic improvements in efficiency.
“They’re sort of like, ‘Wow, if you get the workflow right, implement it properly and have the right guardrails, I could see how that would save you a lot of time and a lot of money and deliver a better product.’” – Avi Gesser
Watch Waldron’s complete presentation here. He cautioned that there is a disconnect between what the technology can do and organizations’ ability to leverage those advancements. For one, he admitted it would be a Herculean task to integrate hundreds of existing applications into a streamlined AI ecosystem.
“There is a value gap between what the technology is capable of and the ability to fully capture that within an enterprise.” – Derek Waldron
Waldron went on to highlight the profound potential of AI. Yet, he cautioned, a tremendous amount of work must be done to consolidate multiple applications into something that employees can efficiently use.
“To do work in thousands of different applications, there’s a lot of work to connect those applications into an AI ecosystem and make them consumable.” – Derek Waldron
JPMorgan Chase is going full steam ahead with its ambitious artificial intelligence other integration plans. The bank is dedicated to making sure each employee benefits from personalized AI assistants, while intelligent agents fuel each and every operational process.
Waldron ended with a strong statement on the impending changes AI will make to the workforce.
“Without a doubt, AI technology will have changes on the construction of the workforce.” – Derek Waldron