Wall Street Banks Deploy AI 'Digital Employees' in Productivity Push

Major Wall Street banks are accelerating their adoption of autonomous AI agents, or “digital employees,” to handle complex tasks with minimal human supervision in a competitive push to boost productivity and gain an edge.

Firms are deploying this agentic AI across a wide range of functions, including wealth management, client vetting, trading, and corporate treasury. The technology is designed to work alongside human colleagues, automating routine processes and providing data-driven insights. According to a June survey by KPMG, the trend is widespread, with 51% of banks already piloting AI agents.

How Banks Are Implementing AI Agents

Financial institutions are embedding these digital assistants into their daily workflows in increasingly sophisticated ways:

• Morgan Stanley plans to test client-facing digital assistants later this summer, according to Koren Maranca, the bank's head of AI for Wealth Management. The firm already uses agents to help financial advisors analyze investments and will soon have them proactively push client recommendations to advisors.
• BNY Mellon treats its digital assistants as integrated team members, assigning them login IDs and nicknames like “Payment Pete,” CEO Robin Vince said on a Wall Street Journal podcast. These agents have human managers who are responsible for their training and performance.
• At UBS, AI agents send thousands of daily alerts to financial advisors about client needs, such as maturing annuities. Richard James, head of AI product at UBS, said that once an advisor makes a decision, the agent can execute trades and money transfers, freeing up advisors to spend 70% of their time with clients.
• Other major players are also involved. Goldman Sachs has partnered with Anthropic to develop agents for tasks like trading and client onboarding, while JPMorgan is targeting corporate treasury operations for AI transformation.

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Investor Scrutiny and Risk Management

The significant investment required for this technology has attracted attention from investors, who are asking about the return on these expenditures. “Investors are asking, where should we be looking for ROI on these tech spends,” said Peter Torrente, U.S. sector leader for banking at KPMG, noting that banks are focusing on areas where returns are most evident.

The growing use of autonomous systems is also prompting a sharp focus on risk and oversight. Banks are implementing strict guardrails and ensuring human supervision remains central to the process, especially for critical or client-facing functions. Morgan Stanley’s Maranca emphasized that agents will not have the autonomy to make final portfolio decisions.

“They are being extremely cautious when it touches the customer and are making sure that there is a human involved for any critical functions,” said Bhavi Mehta, global lead for advanced analytics in financial services at Bain & Company.