Financial Services Firms Are Using “Digital Workers”

Bank of New York Mellon said it now employs dozens of artificial intelligence-powered ‘digital employees’ that have company logins and work alongside its human staff. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, these digital workers have direct managers they report to and work autonomously in areas like coding and payment instruction validation. What the bank, also known as BNY, calls “digital workers,” other banks may refer to as “AI agents.” And while the industry lacks a clear consensus on exact terminology, it’s clear that the technology has a growing presence in financial services.  Others aren’t necessarily taking the same approach of granting their AI full logins, but many say that they are shaping AI into applications that increasingly replicate the capabilities and workflows of human employees, taking on more tasks in areas like the software development life cycle and research. Several, like JPMorgan Chase, say they are still figuring out the exact right access and management controls and system integrations and how humanlike these tech systems will become.