Bank of America Plans to Double AI Expense Budget in 2027

Bank of America plans to double its artificial intelligence expense budget in 2027, expanding workplace use of the technology while its technology chief cautions that AI is not always the right tool.

CEO Brian Moynihan discussed the planned increase at a Sept. 14 financial services conference. He cited about 140 AI and machine-learning uses that cost $400 million and generated $800 million in benefits. The dollar amount of the planned 2027 AI budget has not been disclosed.

Bank of America has more than 300 approved AI and machine-learning use cases. That total includes 114 live generative AI uses, with 34 fully deployed. About 200,000 active users generate more than 400,000 prompts a day.

At the Fortune AIQ Summit in New York on Oct. 1, Chief Technology and Information Officer Hari Gopalkrishnan warned against rushing to AI when deterministic models can do the job. “One of the biggest mistakes we see us and others doing is rush to AI as a solution, when deterministic models do a plenty good job,” he said.

About 19,000 developers use real-time coding assistance, with productivity gains above 20%. Bank of America’s annual technology spending is $14 billion, including more than $4.1 billion for new initiatives such as AI. Those broader spending figures do not specify the planned AI budget.