A $37 billion Mid-Atlantic bank whose CIO calls it innovation 'with a little i': automate what you already have, which is how it converted a $14 billion acquisition with a ten-person team checking 80 million values.
Atlantic Union Bankshares, the Richmond, Virginia parent of Atlantic Union Bank with about $37 billion of assets, does not run a branded AI programme, but it has the most concrete automation record of any bank its size on the 2026 innovators list. When it completed the $14 billion (by asset size) acquisition of Sandy Spring Bancorp in 2025, chief information officer Matt Linderman, a Capital One and PNC veteran who joined in 2023, had his ten-person team automate the entire data conversion: code that checked every value, column and field, more than 80 million values, rather than the industry norm of sampling about 10%, plus a real-time operations dashboard. The result was a call-centre abandonment rate of 13% against a forecast of 50% to 70%, wait times under four minutes and normal call volumes within six days of the October 2025 conversion, a performance American Banker ranked 31st among the year's most innovative in finance. Linderman describes the approach as innovation 'with a little i', innovating within the technology a regional bank can afford rather than buying the newest tools. On AI itself the bank is deliberately cautious: the 2025 annual report says it is 'exploring exciting opportunities with Artificial Intelligence', notes that some of its models already use AI or machine learning with 'unique complexities' around training data, bias and interpretability, and adds a new risk factor on agentic AI, third-party models and generative-AI errors. Its public AI content for customers is about AI fraud. The bank's strategy is growth: ten new North Carolina branches over three years, a roughly $2 billion CRE loan sale to Blackstone in 2025 to reshape the balance sheet, record second-quarter 2026 net income to common of $158.0 million, and a first-quarter net charge-off ratio of 0.02%. Atlantic Union Bank is a Virginia state member bank supervised by the Federal Reserve.
Lead bank
Atlantic Union Bank
Assets (lead bank, Mar 31, 2026)
$37 billion
Charter
Virginia state member bank (Federal Reserve)
Headquarters
Richmond, VA
Flagship platform
Automated conversion and validation tooling (Sandy Spring integration)
AI leadership
John Asbury · Maria Tedesco · Matt Linderman · Doug Woolley · Shawn O'Brien
- Sandy Spring conversion automated end to end: every field validated (80 million-plus values) instead of 10% sampling; abandonment 13% versus a 50–70% forecast; volumes normal in six days.
- Philosophy from the CIO: innovation 'with a little i', rethinking existing technology because a regional bank 'is not going to have the funding to buy all the latest tech'.
- AI stance is exploratory and disclosed as risk: the 10-K says the bank is exploring AI, already uses some AI/ML models, and flags agentic AI, third-party models and generative-AI errors as new risks.
- Customer-facing AI content is defensive: guides on AI fraud and AI-enabled phishing.
- Growth plan: 10 North Carolina branches over three years; M&A on the sideline while Sandy Spring is absorbed; $2 billion CRE loan sale to Blackstone in June 2025.
- Results: Q2 2026 net income to common $158.0 million; Q1 2026 net charge-offs 0.02% of average loans.
What is Automated conversion and validation tooling (Sandy Spring integration)?
Atlantic Union's technology story is the October 2025 integration of Sandy Spring Bancorp, its largest deal. Instead of the usual manual spot-check of about 10% of fields and values, CIO Matt Linderman's ten-person team wrote code that validated every value, column and field of the migrated data, more than 80 million values, and paired it with a real-time dashboard of call-centre volumes and other operating metrics as an early-warning system. Call volume returned to normal in six days, the call-centre abandonment rate came in at 13% against a projected 50% to 70%, and average waits stayed under four minutes through 66,000-plus October calls. The 2025 annual report says the bank is 'exploring exciting opportunities with Artificial Intelligence to further drive innovation and efficiency' and discloses that some of its models already use AI or machine learning, with the bias and interpretability risks that brings.[1][7][8]
What has Atlantic Union done on AI, and when?
- Jul 21, 2026
Second-quarter 2026 results[9]
Net income to common $158.0 million; adjusted operating $134.0 million.
- Jun 1, 2026
CIO ranked No. 31 for automating the merger[1]
80 million values validated; abandonment 13% versus 50–70% forecast.
- May 21, 2026
First-quarter net charge-offs of 0.02%[5]
Among the lowest of its peers.
- Mar 16, 2026
Annual report: 'exploring' AI, agentic-AI risk factor added[7]
Some models already use AI or machine learning.
- Oct 23, 2025
Ten North Carolina branches planned[2]
Raleigh and Wilmington over three years; M&A on the sideline.
- Oct 14, 2025
Sandy Spring integration completed[8]
Data conversion and systems integration unify the bank across four jurisdictions.
- Jun 27, 2025
About $2 billion of CRE loans sold to Blackstone[11]
Balance-sheet reshaping after the Sandy Spring deal.
- May 13, 2025
CEO looks south to the Carolinas[3]
Next chapter planned while integrating the $1.3 billion Sandy Spring purchase.
Where does Atlantic Union use AI today?
| System | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automated merger data conversion and validation[1] | Code-based checks on every migrated value; real-time operations dashboard. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| AI and machine-learning models in use[7] | Disclosed in the 10-K with training-data, bias and interpretability risks. | In production | Model risk management |
| Exploratory AI programme[7] | 'Exploring exciting opportunities with Artificial Intelligence'; agentic and third-party model risks flagged. | Pilot | AI governance (general) |
| AI fraud education for customers[10] | Guides on generative-AI scams and AI-generated phishing. | In production | Fraud detection |
Use-case links open the tracker's rules-by-use-case matrix: which documents govern each system type.
What has Atlantic Union disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Data values validated in the Sandy Spring conversion | > 80 million (no sampling)[1] | Jun 1, 2026 |
| Call-centre abandonment rate in conversion month | 13% (forecast 50–70%)[1] | Jun 1, 2026 |
| Calls in October 2025 | > 66,000; volumes normal in 6 days[1] | Jun 1, 2026 |
| Second-quarter 2026 net income to common | $158.0 million[9] | Jul 21, 2026 |
| First-quarter 2026 net charge-off ratio | 0.02%[5] | May 21, 2026 |
| CRE loans sold to Blackstone | ≈ $2 billion[11] | Jun 27, 2025 |
“We built code that doesn't sample. That equated to checking more than 80 million values.”[1]
Matt Linderman · Chief Information Officer · Jun 1, 2026
“At a regional scale, we're not going to have the funding to buy all the latest tech. So it's important to think about lowercase-i innovation.”[1]
Matt Linderman · Chief Information Officer · Jun 1, 2026
Who runs AI at Atlantic Union?
John AsburyLinkedIn ↗
Maria TedescoLinkedIn ↗
President and Chief Operating Officer, Atlantic Union Bank[8][4]
Matt Linderman
Chief Information Officer (since 2023; ex-Capital One, PNC)[1]
Doug WoolleyLinkedIn ↗
Chief Credit Officer[2]
Shawn O'BrienLinkedIn ↗
EVP, Consumer and Business Banking Group Executive[6]
Which regulators govern Atlantic Union's AI?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Reserve | Atlantic Union Bank is a Virginia state member bank; Fed model-risk guidance covers the AI and ML models the 10-K discloses and the third-party models it flags. | SR 11-7 SR 23-4 |
| CFPB | Consumer lending and servicing bring ECOA adverse-action and UDAAP duties to any AI-based decisioning. | ECOA / Regulation B adverse action (15 U.S.C. 1691(d); 12 CFR 1002.9) |
| FDIC | Deposit-insurance supervision and interagency third-party guidance apply to vendor AI models. | FDIC FIL-29-2023 |
What does the public record suggest about Atlantic Union's AI strategy?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice.
01
Automation without a model is still the biggest lever
The merger result came from deterministic code, not machine learning; it shows what a regional bank can get from engineering discipline before buying AI.
02
The 10-K reads like a bank preparing to deploy
Naming agentic AI, third-party model provenance and generative-AI error risk a year before launching anything is the disclosure pattern of a bank that expects examiners to ask.
03
The conversion tooling is reusable for the Carolinas build-out
Validation code and the operations dashboard transfer to branch openings and any future deal, which is where the 'little i' pays off twice.
04
Name the AI use cases next
The bank says it uses AI/ML models today; saying where (fraud, credit, marketing) would let investors weigh the risk factor it has written.
How does Atlantic Union Bank use AI?
Atlantic Union says in its 2025 annual report that it is exploring opportunities with artificial intelligence and that some of the models it uses already employ AI or machine learning. It has not named specific AI products. Its best-documented technology achievement is the automated data conversion and validation for the Sandy Spring Bancorp integration in October 2025.
Who is Atlantic Union's CIO?
Matt Linderman, who joined in 2023 after 20 years at large banks including Capital One and PNC. He was ranked 31st on American Banker's 2026 Most Innovative People in Finance for automating the Sandy Spring merger conversion with a ten-person team.
- #31 Atlantic Union's CIO automated his way through a $14 billion merger
- Atlantic Union plans more branches to speed Carolinas growth
- Atlantic Union's growth-minded CEO looks south to Carolinas
- The Most Powerful Women to Watch, No. 24, Maria Tedesco, Atlantic Union Bank
- What's a banker to say when charge-offs are microscopic?
- Shawn O'Brien, EVP, Consumer and Business Banking, Atlantic Union Bank (speaker profile)
- Atlantic Union Bankshares 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K
- Atlantic Union Bank Completes Integration of Sandy Spring Bank
- Atlantic Union Bankshares Reports Second Quarter Financial Results
- AI Fraud: What It Is and How to Stay Protected
- Atlantic Union sells roughly $2B in CRE loans to Blackstone
When Atlantic Union moves on AI, you'll read it here first.
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