A new partnership between Customers Bank and OpenAI signals a deeper push by financial institutions to co-develop artificial intelligence rather than buy off-the-shelf solutions.
Customers Bank has entered a multiyear partnership with OpenAI that will embed the tech giant’s engineers within the bank to automate core functions and build new financial tools. The collaboration aims to significantly improve the bank's operational efficiency, a key metric for profitability in the banking sector.
"The goal is to improve our efficiency ratio from about 49% to the low 40s, with higher returns starting in 2027," CEO Sam Sidhu said in a statement. He added that the partnership would also focus on co-developing finance tools that OpenAI could eventually sell to other banks.
The deal will initially focus on automating processes in lending and client onboarding, two areas that are traditionally labor-intensive and represent significant operational costs for banks. By embedding engineers directly, Customers Bank is betting on a bespoke approach that tailors AI capabilities to its specific workflows, rather than adopting generic software.
The move reflects a growing trend across the financial services industry, where firms are moving beyond using AI as a peripheral tool and are instead integrating it into the heart of their operations. Financial giant Ameriprise Financial, which manages $1.7 trillion in assets, recently detailed a similar strategy focused on driving productivity through a proprietary technology platform enhanced with embedded AI.
A Broader Industry Push
While Customers Bank is partnering directly with a leading AI developer, other established players are building their own ecosystems. Ameriprise is focused on an "intelligent ecosystem" that integrates AI and automation directly into adviser workflows, according to its recent earnings call. "We have designed our tech platform around how advisers work, not individual tools," Ameriprise CEO James M. Cracchiolo told investors.
This strategy has already yielded productivity gains for Ameriprise, with adviser productivity increasing 10% to a record $1.2 million per adviser. The firm's eMeeting capability, for example, uses AI to pull data from client engagements and suggest next actions, saving "hours of work within an adviser practice every week," Cracchiolo noted.
The different approaches highlight a central strategic question for the financial industry: whether to partner directly with AI leaders like OpenAI for deep, customized integration or to build proprietary platforms that embed various AI capabilities. Customers Bank's deal suggests a belief that co-creation with a top-tier AI firm will yield a greater competitive advantage, potentially creating new revenue streams if the jointly developed tools are licensed to other institutions. For investors, the success of this partnership, measured by the targeted drop in the efficiency ratio by 2027, will serve as a key test case for the value of deep AI integration in banking.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
