Federal Reserve deploys AI cautiously with system-wide platform, says Christopher Waller

Fed's Waller says central bank deploying AI tech cautiously

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Tuesday the U.S. central bank is carefully moving to adopt artificial intelligence technology in a system-wide approach. "We cannot approach AI casually," and "as a central bank, we hold ourselves to a high standard" when using the technology, Waller said at a conference held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. For the Fed and AI usage, "that means clear guardrails on how and where it's used, strong information-security controls, rigorous model validation, human accountability for decisions, and ongoing evaluation as the technology evolves," with innovation and risk management standing together as complementary priorities, the Fed official said. Waller did not comment on the economic and monetary policy outlook in his prepared remarks. Waller said that despite the Fed being a highly decentralized organization, it is taking a more unified approach to implementing AI technology. "We're moving as one system, with shared direction and alignment," Waller said. And in terms of deciding what to deploy the technology for, "we start with the problem to be solved and the business need, then apply the right capability" from the suite of available AI technology. Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

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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. In a speech delivered at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston 2026 Technology-Enabled Disruption Conference in Boston, Waller said the Fed built an "innovation practice" that encompasses the entire Federal Reserve System so that technologies can be tested and implemented more efficiently than if that work were to be done at each of its banks. In the case of AI, the Fed developed a general-purpose AI platform to be used by all Reserve bank employees. "Our approach is intentionally business-led and AI-enabled," Waller said. "We start with the problem to be solved and the business need, then apply the right capability from across the AI stack. That discipline helps us deliver real business value while avoiding unnecessary complexity and cost." With the general-purpose AI for all employees, the Fed aims to provide a digital assistant that can do things such as drafting, summarizing and analyzing information so employees can focus on higher value activities. In practice, Fed staff use this tool for tasks such as generating key themes from background materials ahead of a meeting and summarizing and prioritizing emails and documents that arrived while they were on vacation. "In both cases, the tool handles the volume and the first pass," Waller said. "The human makes the decisions." Another key focus of the Fed's deployment of AI is in software development. Coding assistants accelerate many of the tasks involved in software development, enabling developers to focus on the security and quality that are critical for an institution like the Federal Reserve. "At the Fed, we're already seeing strong early uptake -- with hundreds of developers adopting these tools quickly -- which tells us this capability is meeting a real need," Waller said. The third focus of the Fed's initiative is embedding AI into existing platforms rather than asking teams to adopt entirely new tools. This enables the Fed to make improvements without creating fragmented solutions. "Given how quickly the technology is evolving, consuming AI through vendor platforms allows us to benefit from ongoing improvements, rather than building and maintaining tools that can become costly and stable," Waller said. Waller delivered his remarks on the same day Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said in a speech that rapid advances in AI could pose new challenges for the central bank's traditional tools as it fundamentally reshapes the U.S. economy. The PYMNTS Intelligence report "Agentic AI Breaks Out of the Sandbox" found that among chief product officers at U.S. enterprise level firms, as of November, 11.7% are already using agentic AI and another 11.7% are piloting/testing the technology. Three months earlier, in August, those figures stood at 1.7%.