Enterprise AI ROI at Bank of America: developers, optimizing normie workflows, double spending

Thus far, the most measurable AI returns are found within technology units, such as with software development and coding, BofA’s DeMare said.

Across most industries, AI is boosting coding productivity about 15% to 20%, he said, and that’s the gain BofA is seeing as its 20,000 software developers use coding agents to optimize the development process.

“That’s clearly identifiable.”

Not firing people, but not hiring people:

“We’re not laying off anybody. We don’t have to do that. All we do is just manage the hiring carefully,” Moynihan said.

it’s about general productivity, and how is it improving [employee] life at work, and how is it improving workflows

Summary of how it works from the robot:

> Headcount is about 209,000 to 210,000, down from 212,000 at the start of the year, managed purely through attrition running at 8% to 8.5%. His arithmetic: on 200,000-plus people you lose over 1,000 a month, so hiring 1,000 instead of 1,300 gets you there. He’s explicit that nobody is being laid off and that the macro test is whether revenue grows while headcount marches down.

And, spending increases:

BofA seeks employees’ best ideas, and “as we tag them for AI, it’s turning out that our level of AI investment interest is actually more than twice what it was last year,” Gopalkrishnan said in an interview this week.

“We will probably end up spending twice next year [what] we did this year because they’re just good, rich ideas that are now starting to create the return on investment for us,” he said.

🔗 Bank of America plans to double AI budget next year