As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, Wells Fargo is working to ensure its workforce adapts. Saul Van Beurden, head of AI and the co-CEO of consumer banking and lending, told Business Insider in a report published on 15 March that the bank is investing in AI literacy programmes and demos to prepare employees for changing roles.
Van Beurden said Wells Fargo cannot manage the transition alone and stressed the need for employees to take responsibility for learning new skills. “You cannot deny things,” Van Beurden told Business Insider. “But how do you make it a thing where everybody has a role to play and takes their own accountability and responsibility?
Wells Fargo, one of the Big Four US banks, must teach employees new skills to stay competitive in a rapidly changing industry. Workers, in turn, must also choose to learn them, Van Beurden said, stressing the importance of mutual effort.
How is Wells Fargo training its employees?
To integrate artificial intelligence effectively, the bank is relying on AI literacy programmes and demos, among other initiatives, according to Van Beurden. These efforts aim to inspire “grassroots enthusiasm” among employees, a key thing that would help them stay in demand.
The goal at Wells Fargo is to make employees comfortable enough with AI that they can move into new roles if their current jobs change, or stay competitive in the broader job market if they leave the bank, Van Beurden said.
Even so, the lender does not mandate its staff to use AI tools. However, like many companies, Wells Fargo believes that the technology will accelerate growth after the Federal Reserve lifted the bank’s $1.95 trillion asset cap.
Advice for staying ahead in the job market
Van Beurden also told the outlet that he believes AI fluency starts outside the office. He is building an agent to help him prepare his 2026 tax returns and believes it is extremely important for employees to make the best use of AI in their personal lives too.
“It’s really important to have that personal usage, to understand the power of what it can do. And then we are enabling that and allowing that to happen at the workplace,” he said.
Despite going all out with AI, Van Beurden emphasised that it is important for people to “stay cognitive,” cautioning that relying too heavily on AI could mean letting the technology generate all of our ideas.
While many college students are already comfortable with technology, he suggested they also spend time on activities like reading or playing chess to keep their thinking sharp, a habit he believes will help them survive in a brutal job market.
Is the US bank also looking at job cuts due to AI?
Van Beurden’s remarks on the changing nature of jobs comes as many of the bank’s competitors are also increasingly adopting AI. A similar trend could be witnessed at Wells Fargo as well, as its chief executive warned of job losses earlier.
Charlie Scharf, the bank’s CEO, said in November last year that it will probably “have less head count as we look forward.” Then in December, he also said that generative AI has made engineers up to 35% more productive.
Meanwhile, the senior executives of other major banks have also said that AI will likely eliminate certain job roles and slow hiring, both publicly and in internal memos. One of Wells Fargo’s competitors, JPMorgan, is one of the companies planning to heavily integrate the technology. Its CEO, Jamie Dimon, said earlier that the company has “huge redeployment plans.”
