Citigroup uses AI to cut account opening times from 75 minutes to 15, transforming operations

Citigroup says AI helps speed account openings and systems upgrades

NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - Citigroup is using artificial intelligence to speed up account openings and the retirement of old software, the U.S. bank's head of technology, Tim Ryan, said, as the firm pushes to improve productivity. U.S. banks are embracing AI, the biggest technological upheaval to the world economy since the internet, to boost productivity and, in some cases, cut jobs. "We still have legacy systems, but after the tech investments we've made, we are in a much better place," Ryan ⁠said in an interview. "AI helps migrate data from legacy systems, automate coding and test more and faster." AI is also being used to speed client onboarding. A system to process documents has shaved an hour off the time required to review documents before opening an account in the U.S. for the services division, to 15 minutes, Ryan added. CITI RELYING LESS ON CONTRACTORS Ryan joined Citigroup from PwC less than two years ago and is revamping the tech division to rely as much as possible on employees rather than external contractors. Ryan told staff a year ago the bank was planning to dramatically reduce its reliance on information technology contractors and hire ⁠thousands of employees for IT, Reuters reported. The lender has sharply increased its investments in technology over the last five years to comply with regulatory requests, among other reasons. Citigroup is under two consent orders issued in 2020 by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that required the bank to increase risk management controls ⁠and fix regulatory data inaccuracies and governance. A year ago, contractors made up around 50% of Citi's technology workforce and the bank planned to reduce that to 20%. The bank is "halfway through" the plan to reduce the use of contractors, ⁠Ryan said. He said the bank hired more software engineers and has a tech workforce of around 50,000 people. Citi wants to rely more on internal staff as it increases investments in the development and deployment ⁠of AI tools and wants to implement consistent AI tools across the company. Citigroup is choosing critical internal processes for review and automation. Among the first 50 processes are client and employee onboarding, as well as some "know your customer" policies. Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, editing by Colin Barr and Rod Nickel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Artificial Intelligence Tatiana Bautzer Thomson Reuters Tatiana Bautzer is a U.S. banking correspondent at Reuters in New York. She previously covered banks in Brazil, breaking news on deals by major global corporations, initial public offerings and bankruptcies. She has also delved into corruption scandals at Brazilian conglomerates and business disputes between billionaires. Prior to joining Reuters in 2015, Bautzer worked for business magazines Exame and Istoe Dinheiro and newspapers Valor Economico and O Estado de S. Paulo. She previously served as international correspondent for Valor Economico in Washington, D.C., covering multilateral institutions and trade. Bautzer holds a B.A. in Journalism and an MBA from the University of Sao Paulo.

Citigroup says AI helps speed account openings and systems upgrades - The Economic Times

US banks are embracing AI, the biggest technological upheaval to the world economy since the internet, to boost productivity and, in some cases, cut jobs.Citigroup is using artificial intelligence to speed up account openings and the retirement of old software, the US bank's head of technology, Tim Ryan, said, as the firm pushes to improve productivity. US banks are embracing AI, the biggest technological upheaval to the world economy since the internet, to boost productivity and, in some cases, cut jobs. "We still have legacy systems, but ⁠after the ⁠tech investments we've made, we are in a much better place," Ryan said in an interview. "AI helps migrate data from legacy systems, automate coding and test more and faster." AI is also being used to speed client onboarding. A system to process documents has shaved an hour off the time required to review documents before opening an account in the US for the services division, to 15 minutes, Ryan added. Citi relying less on contractors Ryan joined Citigroup from PwC less than two years ago and is revamping the tech division to rely as much as possible on employees rather than ⁠external contractors. Ryan told staff a year ago the bank was planning to dramatically reduce its reliance on information technology contractors and hire thousands of employees for IT, Reuters reported. The lender has sharply increased its investments in technology over the last five years to comply with regulatory requests, among other reasons. Citigroup is under two consent orders issued in 2020 by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that required the bank to increase risk management controls and fix regulatory data inaccuracies and governance. A year ago, contractors made up around 50% of Citi's technology workforce and the bank planned to reduce that to 20%. ⁠The bank is "halfway through" the plan to reduce the use of contractors, Ryan said. He said the bank hired more software engineers and has a tech workforce of around 50,000 people. Citi wants to rely more on internal staff as it increases investments in the development and deployment of AI tools and wants to implement consistent AI tools across the company. Citigroup is choosing critical internal processes for review and automation. Among the first 50 processes are client and employee onboarding, as well as some "know your customer" policies.

Citi AI Cuts Account Opening Times by 1 Hour | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The bank's initial focus includes processes such as client and employee onboarding, and some know your customer (KYC) processes, according to the report. It is already using artificial intelligence to streamline account openings, automate coding and migrate data from legacy systems. In one application of the technology, AI has reduced the time needed to review documents before opening an account in the U.S. for the services division from an hour and 15 minutes to just 15 minutes, the report said. Citi is reducing the percentage of its technology workforce that is made up of contractors from 50% a year ago to 20%, and it has increased its tech workforce to about 50,000 people as it develops and deploys AI tools, per the report. "We still have legacy systems, but after the tech investments we've made, we are in a much better place," Ryan told Reuters. The PYMNTS Intelligence report "2025 State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the United States" found that financial institutions are investing more aggressively in AI, behavioral analytics and cloud infrastructure to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated forms of fraud. It was reported in February that agentic AI is moving beyond experimental pilots and into the operational core of financial institutions. These institutions are embedding agentic systems into compliance, treasury, risk and payments infrastructure. In March, it was reported that banks are using autonomous AI tools to prepare client materials, model financial scenarios, speed outreach and improve fraud detection. Ryan said in a post on LinkedIn that as of the end of 2025, more than 182,000 Citi employees in 84 countries were using the bank's AI tools. "We launched new AI products and capabilities that are changing how we work and are helping our teams build new skills," Ryan wrote in the post. In another post on LinkedIn, Ryan said that Citi has rolled out prompt training and that colleagues had input more than 6.5 million prompts, "transforming tasks that once took hours into minutes."

Citigroup says AI helps speed account openings and systems upgrades

NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - Citigroup is using artificial intelligence to speed up account openings and the retirement of old software, the U.S. bank's head of technology, Tim Ryan, said, as the firm pushes to improve productivity. U.S. banks are embracing AI, the biggest technological upheaval to the world economy since the internet, to boost productivity and, in some cases, cut jobs. "We still have legacy systems, but after the tech investments we've made, we are in a much better place," Ryan said in an interview. "AI helps migrate data from legacy systems, automate coding and test more and faster." AI is also being used to speed client onboarding. A system to process documents has shaved an hour off the time required to review documents before opening an account in the U.S. for the services division, to 15 minutes, Ryan added. CITI RELYING LESS ON CONTRACTORS Ryan joined Citigroup from PwC less than two years ago and is revamping the tech division to rely as much as possible on employees rather than external contractors. Ryan told staff a year ago the bank was planning to dramatically reduce its reliance on information technology contractors and hire thousands of employees for IT, Reuters reported. The lender has sharply increased its investments in technology over the last five years to comply with regulatory requests, among other reasons. Citigroup is under two consent orders issued in 2020 by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that required the bank to increase risk management controls and fix regulatory data inaccuracies and governance. A year ago, contractors made up around 50% of Citi's technology workforce and the bank planned to reduce that to 20%. The bank is "halfway through" the plan to reduce the use of contractors, Ryan said. He said the bank hired more software engineers and has a tech workforce of around 50,000 people. Citi wants to rely more on internal staff as it increases investments in the development and deployment of AI tools and wants to implement consistent AI tools across the company. Citigroup is choosing critical internal processes for review and automation. Among the first 50 processes are client and employee onboarding, as well as some "know your customer" policies. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, editing by Colin Barr and Rod Nickel)