AI Gains for Big Banks Pose Competition Headache: Paul J. Davies

Bank of America Corp. first launched its artificial-intelligence driven chatbot, Erica, nearly a decade ago in 2016. Several iterations and a wealth of patents later, the platform handles about 2 million customer interactions each day, the equivalent of what 11,000 employees could do.

If that sounds impressive, the flipside is the cost: the company has spent nearly $120 billion on technology over roughly the same period, and last year’s $12 billion tech budget included $4 billion for development, including improving Erica and building new apps, on top of the $8 billion required to maintain existing systems. These are huge sums and ...