Beth Johnson shares the AI projects underway at Citizens Bank

Beth Johnson, chief experience officer at Citizens Financial Group, reveals some of the pilots the bank has been conducting with generative AI in this Leaders episode. For instance, the bank has been testing gen AI's ability to assist with software development, help contact center reps find information and aid branch staff to spot fake checks. She also shares her ethical concerns about the technology and how she addresses them.


Transcripts:

Penny Crosman:
Welcome to Leaders. I'm Penny Crosman, technology editor at American Banker, and I am here with Beth Johnson, who is Chief Experience Officer and Vice chairman at Citizens Financial Group. She oversees a number of areas of technology as well as ESG. And you wear a number of hats. I do. You've been working on a number of interesting technology projects over the past year, and some of them I know revolve around generative ai. I understand you put together a new testing platform for that. What are some of the ways you are testing generative AI and where do you see using it throughout the bank?

Beth Johnson:
Yeah, I'm really excited about generative AI and the new technology, and I think it's really important with something that's been adopted so quickly, but so nascent to just get the organization using it, thinking about it, looking at it, and doing that in a really responsible way. So one of the first things we did is pull together a team of folks from across the bank to say, how can we start to get into this technology and add value? So that included my team around data and analytics, some of my technology partners, but our risk teams, our HR teams to say, let's be really thoughtful on how we experiment with this new technology and ultimately roll it out. So some of the early things we've done a couple, one, like many, we were looking at coding, so how do we use generative AI in our ability to code in our organization with our software engineers, both in an overall standpoint, but also on some targeted programs like getting out of old languages into new languages, which we found really successful.

The second thing we wanted to do is take a platform approach. So how do we start to experiment where we can leverage in relatively safe areas without a lot of our customer data being exposed, but begin to test some of the linkages, the platforms build the capabilities around gen ai. And so we've done that in the contact center where we have a tool for our agents to just find information easier, faster, serve our clients better, make them happier because they're serving our clients better and their jobs easier. So we're in pilot with that and about to roll that out as well, but we really thoughtfully built it as a platform that now can scale to lots of different use cases. As we think about the exciting use of gen ai,

Penny Crosman:
And I know you have a priority around making sure it's ethical, what are some of the ethical considerations that you worry about the most?

Beth Johnson:
This is a funny one. I think first and foremost, we're a bank. We have to protect our customers. We have to protect their information. So we're going to do that, and we do that with all of our AI that we roll out, whether that's generative or others, and have been really thoughtful about how we think about that. That's true for our colleagues data as well. So I think that's the first and most important in terms of responsible use of ai. But the second is also to just educate our colleagues. So if their jobs are going to change, how do we think about preparing them in these new tools and some other ways as well? And then the third is just making sure that we're really buttoned up from a regulatory perspective and making sure that we're being thoughtful in how we test, how roll this out, how we don't have accidents around this and do things through the right guidelines as well as tollgates

Penny Crosman:
For sure. So I know one of the things you've been working on and thinking about is data democratization. What does that mean to you and what are some of the steps you need to take to get there?

Beth Johnson:
So I always talk about myself. I've had a lot of different roles throughout my career, but at heart, I'm a data geek, so I started my career in very analytics driven ways. When I was an analyst coming out of college, I was a math major undergrad. So I'm all about using data and being thoughtful about how you solve problems and then apply it to the business. How does that impact our customers? How does that ultimately impact our growth? When we talk about data democratization, it's about getting data into the hands of everybody and massively upskilling so that everybody can use it to make better decisions in the organization. And that can be either at a strategic level, do I want to enter this market? Do I not want to enter this market? Which customers are most likely to take this product versus not? But it can also be at a very local level. So how do I make pricing decisions or credit decisions or fraud decisions? How do I really impact the customer at an individual level as well as at those broader decisions? So what we've done is invested a lot to try to leverage our data and turn it into what we call the data marketplace where it's a really flexible tool, single source of truth, where many of our businesses at these different levels can utilize that data in the day-to-day way they run the business.

Penny Crosman:
Alright, fair enough. And I think you've also been working on new fraud models. Fraud is just a hugely important topic these days. What are some new kinds of models you've been looking at and what can they do to prevent fraud?

Beth Johnson:
Yeah, we've got to constantly, as bankers, be innovating on fraud because the fraudsters are constantly innovating on fraud. So what we've started to do is really leverage our data scientists and those that can build innovative machine learning models and other techniques to be able to pinpoint fraud and then be able to get that into production so that we can support our clients and not have false positives so that when it is our client, they're able to transact with us the way they want, but also really protect their banking accounts. And so we're using those types of models to do that. Actually, a really kind of interesting, funny one, we have an analyst program, an intern program for some graduates in data science. They actually just built a model that does a great job of actually detecting fake checks. So when somebody's washed a check, which we're starting to see a rise in an industry, again, there are ways that they use these visual tools through AI to be able to pick it up and things like that, which are really innovative as we think about how do you leverage these tools to just make sure we are buttoned up and protecting our customers in all the ways we can.

Penny Crosman:
Going back to old school fraud, which is what the fraud we, we've

Beth Johnson:
Seen a rise in old school fraud for a while on literally things like check washing

Penny Crosman:
For sure. So I know you've been working on embedded finance as well. What are some of the types of partners or companies that you would want to embed Citizens Services into?

Beth Johnson:
So I am fascinated by the world of embedded payments, and as I think about my remit and payments, it's really how do we think about payments as a technology that we can leverage across the bank for different customer segments? How do we think about really making sure we're building once and we're utilizing across? I really think that's where embedded payments comes in. So as you know, there are many players out there today that are providing software solutions usually for a vertical, not always. I think a great example of that is toast in restaurants. We all now see that they help someone manage the restaurant better. That's now including things like payments and banking and other things. So when we think about it, it's really opening just a new distribution channel for customers and many of them existing customers of ours to say, how do we help you meet your customers where they are and leverage our payments capabilities as part of that, that we're already building today for the customers that we have as a bank?

Penny Crosman:
And we've certainly seen a lot of goings on in the banking as a service area. Do you think embedded finance can steer clear of the kind of concerns that have come up there?

Beth Johnson:
I think the way we're approaching it is to first and foremost make sure we are thinking through all of the legal regulatory compliance requirements as we start to support our clients this way. So it's really one of the differentiators a bank like Citizens can have, which is to leverage the great partnerships we have with our risk teams, our legal teams, to make sure we know how we're going to approach this market. We're doing it really safely so that we don't fall into any of the traps that you've seen in some of the smaller players that have started to dabble in banking as a service or other areas of the market.

Penny Crosman:
That makes sense. Well, I know you also oversee ESG at Citizens. What are some of your top initiatives in that area?

Beth Johnson:
Well, when we think about ESG Citizens has a credo, customers, colleagues, and communities, we live by it every day. It's how do we make sure that we're serving all of those different constituents really, really well. And so when we thought about ESG, we thought about it as an extension of that. So we have really four key pillars associated with our efforts. The first is governance Citizens is about to experience its 10 year anniversary. As a public company, we were lucky enough to set up really strong governance routines a decade ago when we launched, but we keep that front and center. I think it's really important now more than ever in banking to not forget the G in that ESG. The second is around climate. So we did a sustainability announcement last year. We do want to be certain that as citizens, we're supporting the transition to a greener planet over time, but doing it thoughtful, supporting all our clients as they're thinking about this.

So we're doing some innovative things like we've made a commitment to train our commercial bankers on climate so that they can have great conversations with their customers on climate. The third is around workforce development. When we said, where in our communities can we as a bank make a real difference, it's in developing the workforce. So when we talk to clients, what kind of workers are needed versus what kind of workers can we help train and supply? And we've partnered with some community colleges and some other organizations to really think about how do we help in the communities we're in our markets in that workforce development. And then the final one is fostering strong communities. I think every bank does this, every bank does it well, but if you think about financing low income apartments or financing other small businesses. So we've spent a lot of time thinking about that as well.

Penny Crosman:
So what is your top initiative or hope going forward, whether it's generative AI or fraud or ESG or any of the other areas you cover?

Beth Johnson:
It's funny because you talked about my title being chief Experience officer at the beginning, but I really think about these capabilities as a way to deliver for our customers. And that could be a business, it could be somebody in wealth. We've actually just really gone deep into the wealth market as well as others. But it comes back into making sure we're focused on the set of capabilities we're building to be able to deliver better for those customers. And that's where I think things like generative AI really fit in. As I said, embedded payments fits into that because you're thinking about those customers and the channels they need to serve their customers. So really where I tend to try to focus is on where do we see those customer needs changing and how do we build capabilities the bank can leverage across those groups?

Penny Crosman:
Alright, well Beth Johnson, thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks Penny.