“Open the pod bay doors, HAL. “I’m sorry, Dave. I can’t do that.”
Back in 1968, when Arthur C. Clarke wrote “2001. A Space Odyssey", the idea of an artificially intelligent space craft control system seemed pretty radical… pretty “out there” (pun intended). The idea of that system going rogue, well, that was a downright frightening notion. Today, we live with AI-powered platforms that are getting smarter and smarter every day. Given that fact, I got to wondering what the world of banking would be like if HAL were in charge of HR.
Imagine interviewing for your next banking job. Assuming, of course, that your submitted resume gets through the ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) firewall, which, as I understand it, requires using formatting, fonts, and keywords that are “friendly” to the role to which you’re applying. That determination is made as a search engine parses, categorizes, and indexes the resume’s content.
So, you’ve gotten through to the next step: an interview. You log in. Your recruiter appears on screen, asks intelligent questions, analyzes your answers, evaluates your skills, and determines whether you're a good cultural fit.
There's just one problem. Your recruiter isn't human. Neither is the hiring manager. And, unfortunately for you, they're looking for someone a little more like themselves; that is, not human. Welcome to the future of banking, where the sign on the HR department door might eventually read: Humans Need Not Apply.
Sound far-fetched? Maybe. But perhaps not as far-fetched as you think.
First Stop: Human Resources
This is the reality, not science fiction. AI is already finding its way into talent management. In “Scaling across talent management in financial services organizations,” Deloitte reports that 18% of financial services executives surveyed said their organizations were implementing generative AI within the talent function. “Among the areas where executives see opportunities are recruiting, performance evaluation, succession planning, career development and predicting which employees are likely to leave.” One financial services executive participating in Deloitte's research reported an 18% reduction in time-to-hire after implementing AI-driven recruitment tools. Now take that trajectory a few steps further.
Today's AI helps the recruiter. Tomorrow's AI is the recruiter.
Our hypothetical bank's new non-human HR director can identify candidates, conduct interviews, assess competencies, onboard new hires, develop personalized training programs, monitor and assess performance, and predict turnover.
And when it's time to hire? Well, our artificial HR director has developed a rather unfortunate natural bias. It prefers artificial employees. Call it non-human nepotism. After all, why hire a human loan processor who needs sleep, vacation, and training… while occasionally complaining about all of the above, when an AI agent can work around the clock with no sleep and no need for vacation time? Then, to take that a step further, why hire another human to manage the AI-powered process when another AI-powered process can do that?
Now HR isn't recruiting people. It's recruiting processing power.
From AI-Assisted to AI-Operated
That's when things get interesting. AI hires an AI-powered marketing director. Marketing hires AI content creators. AI-powered compliance agents monitor transactions and regulations. AI lending systems analyze applications. AI fraud agents monitor suspicious activity. AI customer-service agents handle questions. This isn't entirely science fiction.
In the June 8, “The Symbiotic Enterprise,” McKinsey says: “AI is no longer just a tool. It is becoming a workforce.” It describes agentic AI as a potential paradigm shift in banking in which “squads” of AI agents perform end-to-end processes autonomously, leaving humans primarily responsible for oversight, coaching and exceptions. In some financial-crime applications, McKinsey estimates that one human practitioner could potentially supervise 20 or more AI agents. McKinsey has also estimated that generative AI could enable automation of up to 70% of business activities across industries. Importantly, that means activities, not necessarily 70% of jobs. Still, follow that road far enough and you arrive at an interesting question: How many humans does a bank actually need?
Honey, They Shrunk the Branch
Now imagine the branch of the future. Forget 5,000 square feet. Forget teller lines (forget tellers!), offices, and drive-through windows. Think phone booth. The customer enters. Facial or biometric authentication identifies them. A sophisticated conversational AI greets them by name.
"Good morning, Susan. How can I help you?" Open an account? Done. Apply for a mortgage? Let's review your finances. Replace a debit card? Of course. Investment question? Here's your AI advisor. Would you like a rundown of your current investments and how they’re performing, along with recommendations on how we might shift funds in order to enhance returns? Business loan? Robert, our lending officer, is already reviewing your cash flow.
There may not even be a screen. Just a conversation between one human and an interconnected collection of AI agents representing virtually every function of the bank. The branch hasn't disappeared. But there's no coffee or muffins. No open workspace areas for people to hang out and surf the internet, or participate in a work call via Zoom. It's been compressed. And somewhere inside the bank's cloud infrastructure, thousands of artificial “employees” are working furiously. All, without a single employee parking space.
There's Just One Little Problem
The problem? People. As in, there aren’t any. And as we all know, at least for the moment, banking isn't just transactional. It's relational. People still, again at least for the moment, want reassurance when they're making complicated financial decisions. Business owners want someone who understands their circumstances. Families buying their first homes aren't simply purchasing mortgage products. Fraud victims aren't looking for efficient processing; they're frightened and want help… reassurance. (Can a Chatbot provide that? Why not?)
This is where some hope resides. And where the “Humans Need Not Apply” future is not right around the corner. McKinsey's research doesn't actually predict a human-free workplace. It describes a future built around partnerships among people, AI agents and robots, noting that while today's technologies could theoretically automate more than half of current U.S. work hours, that is not a forecast of equivalent job losses. Roles will disappear, emerge, and change.
Even AI-powered HR raises very human concerns. Deloitte's financial-services research identifies bias, privacy, and employee trust as significant barriers and emphasizes the importance of human oversight. Which brings us back to our imaginary AI recruiter. Perhaps someday it really will interview another AI for the position of Senior Vice President of Artificial Lending. But banks shouldn't confuse what's technologically possible with what's strategically desirable. The competitive advantage may not belong to the bank that removes the most humans. It may, instead, belong to the bank that figures out where humans still matter most; and uses AI everywhere else, and in ways that make those still much-needed “humans” better at what they do.
Bank Marketing Center
We’re Bank Marketing Center, the leading subscription-based, automated marketing platform designed especially for community banks. We are presently helping the bank marketing professionals at over 300 institutions craft and distribute topical, compelling marketing communication that builds trust in their brand, deepens customer relationships, and grows revenue.
We do this by automating the essential marketing functions banks rely upon; content creation using professionally designed bank marketing templates, social media scheduling and monitoring, digital asset management, compliance routing, and more.
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Want to learn more about what we can do for your community bank and your marketing efforts? You can start by visiting bankmarketingcenter.com. Then, feel free to contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts.