A data-first rebuild under a new chief data and analytics officer, with AI discussed publicly mostly through the bank's own journalism on fraud, healthcare and the economy rather than through product launches.
How is BOK Financial using AI?
BOK Financial, the $53 billion Tulsa-based parent of BOKF, N.A. with operations across Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Arkansas, has said little about its own AI deployments and has not disclosed AI spending, use-case counts or productivity claims. The one deployment on record comes from a vendor: in an August 2026 case study, Vanilla says BOK's Advisor Trust Services team uses its AI platform, with custom prompts, to review trust documents and saves roughly four hours on average on each initial trust review, that BOK ran a security review of close to a year before adopting it and developed its own AI governance policy along the way, and that people stay in the loop for decisions such as discretionary distributions. What is on the record is organisational: Shanthi Pudota, a 30-year data executive from Expedia, Discover and Fannie Mae, is senior vice-president and chief data and analytics officer and 'leads BOK Financial's enterprise data and AI strategy', described in March 2026 as a shift to a 'data-first model' in which data is a shared enterprise asset so that 'analytics and AI [can] scale responsibly'. The bank's public voice on AI otherwise comes through its own editorial site, The Statement, where chief information security and privacy officer Paul Tucker warned in January 2026 that 'AI is making scams faster, cheaper, and more convincing than ever', and where its fraud and healthcare specialists write about generative-AI-enabled phishing and deepfake scams (a 'double-edged sword'), social engineering behind ACH and wire fraud, and AI in healthcare operations (57% of healthcare executives rank AI clinical solutions as their top technology initiative). Financially the bank earned $155.8 million in the first quarter of 2026 with operating expense falling to $354.2 million, CEO Stacy Kymes is counting on a new mortgage-finance unit for 2026 growth, and BOK ranked 18th among banks for customer reputation in American Banker's 2026 survey. Treat this page as a thin record: a national bank with a named AI and data leader, an explicit governance framing and a specialty-lending data heritage (a warehouse of forecasts on more than 200,000 oil and gas wells), but no disclosed AI product roadmap. The filings add a little: the 2025 10-K (February 2026) says BOK 'continue[s] to evaluate and selectively deploy' AI, machine learning and generative AI, and, new against the prior year's risk factor, that the board gets periodic updates on AI governance but 'does not approve individual AI capabilities', with each initiative going through an internal review of data quality, bias, regulatory compliance and ethics. None of the four earnings calls from October 2025 to July 2026 touched on AI, and the first- and second-quarter 2026 10-Qs mention it only in the glossary and in a macro scenario.
Thin public record: No AI remarks on its last four earnings calls (Q3 2025 to Q2 2026), no bank-disclosed AI product, spend or use-case count (the one deployment on record, Vanilla trust-document review, comes from a vendor case study), and a 10-K AI passage that is a risk factor with a short governance description.
Lead bank
BOKF, National Association
Assets (lead bank, Jun 30, 2026)
$53 billion
Charter
National bank (OCC)
Headquarters
Tulsa, OK
AI leadership
Stacy Kymes · Shanthi Pudota · Paul Tucker · Derek Martin · Mindy Mahaney · Randy Kimmel · Scott Grauer · David Stratton · Joseph Rangel
- Named leader: Shanthi Pudota, SVP and chief data and analytics officer, owns 'enterprise data and AI strategy' and a shift to a data-first operating model (March 2026).
- Framing is governance-led: build data foundations so that 'analytics and AI [can] scale responsibly while remaining aligned with business priorities'.
- Public AI content is defensive: the bank's fraud team warns that ChatGPT-class tools write convincing phishing and that deepfake imagery is rising; ACH and wire fraud guidance stresses human verification over tools.
- Vendor-reported deployment: Vanilla's AI platform reviews trust documents for BOK's Advisor Trust Services team, saving roughly four hours per initial review (Vanilla case study, August 2026); BOK wrote its own AI governance policy during a near year-long security review.
- CISO Paul Tucker (January 2026): AI makes scams 'faster, cheaper, and more convincing', including voice and video impersonation, so old red flags such as bad grammar no longer work.
- Data heritage in energy lending: a three-year data warehouse centralising evaluations on 200,000-plus oil and gas wells improved risk analysis and lending outcomes.
- No disclosed AI spend, use-case count or customer-facing AI product; first-quarter 2026 net income $155.8 million with operating expense down $6.9 million.
- Filings: the 2025 10-K describes a per-initiative AI governance review (data quality, bias, compliance, ethics) with periodic board updates; the board does not approve individual AI capabilities. AI did not come up on the last four earnings calls.
- Reputation: 18th among banks by customer reputation in 2026 (score 79.7), down from 10th in 2025.
- Governance chain: CIO Derek Martin runs enterprise operations and IT; the CISO reports to Chief Risk Officer Mindy Mahaney, and the CISO briefs the board Risk Committee quarterly (2025 10-K, 2026 proxy).
- Fraud is the one area where the bank says it is applying AI itself: in July 2025 CISO Paul Tucker said BOK is 'implementing AI into our systems to better protect them', and in August 2026 treasury officer Joseph Rangel said AI-powered tools help identify anomalies.
- Only a proxy for technology spend exists: data processing and communications expense was $198.5 million in 2025, up $11.3 million (6%) on 'ongoing projects', and professional fees rose 15% to $62.2 million; no line is labelled AI.
- Zero of four earnings calls (Q3 2025 to Q2 2026) carried an AI remark; the 10-Qs for the first and second quarters of 2026 mention AI only in the glossary and in the macro forecast ('AI investments help lift consumer spending levels and labor force productivity').
- No patent or published application assigned to BOKF, N.A. or BOK Financial was identified in Google Patents searches; the one named AI vendor, Vanilla, is a third party.
What AI partnerships and patents does BOK Financial have?
BOK Financial names one AI vendor, Vanilla, for trust and estate document review. Mastercard has been its exclusive card network since January 2024. No frontier-lab agreement, GPU purchase, AI capital figure or AI patent assigned to BOKF, N.A. is public; Google Patents searches under the bank's names did not identify one.[12][17]
| Item | What it is | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla | AI platform for trust and estate document review, with custom prompts and a human in the loop | In production (vendor-reported) | 2026-08-13[12][23] |
| Mastercard (network) | Exclusive network for BOK debit and commercial portfolios and extended TransFund processing relationship | In production | 2024-01-30[17] |
| Mastercard (security services) | Cyber and intelligence solutions, digital identity and tokenization offered to BOK customers; no AI product named | In production | 2024-01-30[17] |
What has BOK Financial done on AI, and when?
- Aug 17, 2026
18th for customer reputation[3]
Score 79.7 in American Banker's 2026 survey.
- Aug 13, 2026
Vanilla case study: AI trust-document review[12]
Vendor-reported: the Advisor Trust Services team saves roughly four hours on average per initial trust review; BOK reviewed Vanilla's security for close to a year and developed its own AI governance policy; humans keep discretionary decisions.
- Aug 11, 2026
Treasury officer on AI-driven fraud[29]
Joseph Rangel describes voice cloning and deepfake impersonation of bank staff and recommends dual approvals, Positive Pay and call-back verification; he notes AI-powered tools also help detect anomalies.
- Aug 4, 2026
Second-quarter 2026 10-Q[28]
AI appears only in the glossary and in the economic forecast ('Benefits from the One Big Beautiful Bill and AI investments help lift consumer spending levels and labor force productivity').
- Jul 21, 2026
- Jul 8, 2026
BOK experts frame AI as a productivity cycle[24]
Cavanal Hill president Matt Stephani calls AI and automation 'deflationary'; chief investment strategist Steve Wyett says jobs will be 'different'; this is market commentary, not bank operations.
- Jun 23, 2026
Vanilla announces BOK trust-operations webinar[23]
Randy Kimmel is billed to speak on 23 July 2026 on how BOK uses AI in trust and estate operations; the page promises 'real workflows from BOK Financial's team'.
- Jun 17, 2026
Pudota on the American Banker Digital Banking agenda[1]
Scheduled panel 'AI and Data Analytics' on data quality, lineage governance and 'AI debt' in banks, listed on her speaker profile.
- May 6, 2026
First-quarter 2026 10-Q[22]
AI appears in the glossary and in the macro scenario (AI investments lifting productivity and GDP); no AI deployment, spend or risk update beyond the 10-K.
- Apr 21, 2026
First-quarter call: no AI, efficiency ratio 63.2%[21]
Kymes and CFO Martin Grunst discuss loans, fees and expenses; the transcript has no AI remark. Personnel expense fell $11.6 million; 2026 efficiency guidance stays near 63%.
- Apr 20, 2026
First-quarter 2026 results[4]
Net income $155.8 million; operating expense $354.2 million.
- Mar 30, 2026
Pudota on data lineage and Customer 360[20]
Forbes quotes the chief data and analytics officer: lineage 'enables trust, change management, regulatory confidence, and responsible AI'; governance, not technology, is the hard part of Customer 360.
- Mar 30, 2026
Healthcare research on AI adoption[14]
57% of healthcare C-suites rank AI clinical solutions as their top technology initiative.
- Mar 24, 2026
Chief data and analytics officer profiled[1]
Pudota leads enterprise data and AI strategy and a 'data-first' shift.
- Mar 6, 2026
ACH and wire fraud guidance[8]
Human verification, daily reconciliation and dual controls as the layer AI tools cannot replace.
- Feb 18, 2026
- Jan 27, 2026
CEO counts on mortgage finance for 2026[2]
New unit could reach $1 billion in commitments; high-single-digit loan growth forecast.
- Jan 26, 2026
CISO on AI-enabled business fraud[13]
Paul Tucker: AI lets fraudsters produce convincing emails, calls, texts and voice or video impersonations, so businesses cannot rely on old red flags; layered payment controls and verification recommended.
- Jan 20, 2026
- Oct 20, 2025
Pudota at Gartner: cloud is foundational for AI[16]
Speaking at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, the chief data officer says cloud spend management is 'pretty high' on her agenda because AI spend 'is going to be exponentially higher if we don't manage it well'.
- Jul 15, 2025
CISO on AI-enabled B2B payment fraud[15]
After the TEXPO conference, Paul Tucker says criminals use machine learning to mimic legitimate users and that 'we're implementing AI into our systems to better protect them'; the bank advises AI-based detection, MFA, velocity controls and staff training.
- Feb 19, 2025
2024 10-K: AI 'selectively' deployed[10]
The risk factor says BOK continues to evaluate and selectively deploy AI, machine learning and generative AI, and flags flawed or biased data and evolving AI law, including at third-party providers.
- Mar 21, 2024
Energy data warehouse profiled[7]
Three-year effort centralised evaluations on 200,000-plus wells for risk and pricing analysis.
- Feb 21, 2024
'AI a double-edged sword' on fraud[6]
Fraud team ties rising phishing losses to tools like ChatGPT and warns of AI-generated imagery.
- Jan 30, 2024
Mastercard becomes exclusive card network[17]
Expanded agreement makes Mastercard the exclusive payments network across BOK debit and commercial portfolios and extends its TransFund processing relationship; BOK cites Mastercard cyber and intelligence solutions, digital identity and tokenization.
Where does BOK Financial use AI today?
| System | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data-first model for responsible AI scaling[1] | Enterprise data treated as a shared asset under the chief data and analytics officer. | Rolling out | AI governance (general) |
| Energy portfolio data warehouse[7] | Historical and forecast data on 200,000-plus wells for production, pricing and expense risk. | In production | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| Per-initiative AI governance review (10-K risk factor)[9] | Each AI initiative is assessed for data quality, bias, regulatory compliance and ethical considerations; the board is updated periodically on the governance structure but does not approve individual capabilities. The same risks are flagged for third-party providers building AI into their services. | In production | Model risk management |
| Vanilla AI trust-document review (Advisor Trust Services)[12] | Vendor-reported: custom prompts run BOK's own trust and synoptic review questions, cite the article and section behind each answer, and save roughly four hours on average per initial trust review; a human stays in the loop. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
| AI-enabled fraud awareness and controls[6][8][13] | Client guidance on generative-AI phishing, deepfakes and ACH/wire social engineering. | In production | Fraud detection |
| AI in BOK's own fraud defences (CISO statement)[15][29] | Paul Tucker said in July 2025 that BOK is implementing AI in its systems to protect them while attackers use the same tools, and a treasury officer said in August 2026 that AI-powered tools help detect anomalies. No tool, vendor or result is named. | Rolling out | Fraud detection |
Use-case links open the tracker's rules-by-use-case matrix: which documents govern each system type.
Which AI vendors and fintechs does BOK Financial work with?
| Company | What BOK Financial uses it for | Status | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla | AI trust-document review for BOK Financial's Advisor Trust Services team, using custom prompts for its synoptic and trust reviews; the team reports saving about four hours on an initial review (Vanilla case study). | In production | Document AI |
Each vendor and fintech page cites the source for the relationship, and vendor pages list products, pricing and other bank customers. Compare AI tools for banks by category, or read the fintech and neobank AI dossiers.
What has BOK Financial disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| First-quarter 2026 net income | $155.8 million[4] | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Operating expense, Q1 2026 | $354.2 million (down $6.9 million)[4] | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Oil and gas wells in the energy data warehouse | > 200,000[7] | Mar 21, 2024 |
| Time saved per initial trust review with Vanilla (vendor-reported) | ≈ 4 hours on average[12] | Aug 13, 2026 |
| Customer reputation rank | 18th (79.7)[3] | Aug 17, 2026 |
| Second-quarter 2026 net income | $176.5 million ($2.92 per share); $156.5 million adjusted for a Visa gain[25][26] | Jul 20, 2026 |
| Operating expense, Q2 2026 | $361.7 million (up $7.5 million); efficiency ratio 60.2%, 63.5% adjusted[25] | Jul 20, 2026 |
| Period-end loans, 30 June 2026 | $27.1 billion (up $896 million in the quarter, 11.5% on the year)[25][26] | Jul 20, 2026 |
| Data processing and communications expense, 2025 | $198.5 million (up $11.3 million, 6%, on ongoing projects)[9] | Feb 18, 2026 |
| Professional fees and services, 2025 | $62.2 million (up 15%, additional projects)[9] | Feb 18, 2026 |
| Net income, full-year 2025 | $578.0 million ($9.17 per diluted share)[9] | Feb 18, 2026 |
| Earnings calls with an AI remark, Q3 2025 to Q2 2026 | 0 of 4[18][19][21][27] | Jul 21, 2026 |
“Building the foundations that enable analytics and AI to scale responsibly while remaining aligned with business priorities and enterprise decision-making.”[1]
Shanthi Pudota · SVP, Chief Data and Analytics Officer · Mar 24, 2026
“AI is making scams faster, cheaper, and more convincing than ever.”[13]
Paul Tucker · Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer · Jan 26, 2026
“I think the setup for 2026 is probably as good as I can remember, both from a company-performance perspective and from an economic-backdrop perspective.”[2]
Stacy Kymes · President and CEO · Jan 27, 2026
“While we're implementing AI into our systems to better protect them, scammers are using the same tools to defraud businesses, making it critical to understand what we're up against.”[15]
Paul Tucker · Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer · Jul 15, 2025
“With AI, [cloud spend] is going to be exponentially higher if we don't manage it well.”[16]
Shanthi Pudota · Chief Data Officer (later titled SVP, Chief Data and Analytics Officer) · Oct 20, 2025
“Lineage isn't documentation for documentation's sake. It's what enables trust, change management, regulatory confidence, and responsible AI.”[20]
Shanthi Pudota · SVP, Chief Data and Analytics Officer · Mar 30, 2026
“You can't have an AI trust officer, and that's not what we're trying to do. We always have the human in the loop, and with the complexities of trust, we have to.”[12]
Randy Kimmel · National Trust Consultant, Advisor Trust Services · Aug 13, 2026
Who runs AI at BOK Financial?
Stacy KymesLinkedIn ↗
Shanthi PudotaLinkedIn ↗
SVP, Chief Data and Analytics Officer (enterprise data and AI strategy)[1]
Derek MartinLinkedIn ↗
EVP and Chief Information Officer (since 2022; leads enterprise operations and information technology)[11]
Mindy Mahaney
EVP and Chief Risk Officer (enterprise-wide risk management, information security and compliance; the CISO reports to her)[11][9]
Randy Kimmel
Vice President and National Trust Consultant, Advisor Trust Services (owner of the Vanilla trust-review deployment)[12][23]
Scott Grauer
EVP, Wealth Management Executive and CEO of BOK Financial Securities (chairs Cavanal Hill Investment Management and BOK Financial Private Wealth; no AI remit disclosed)[11]
David Stratton
EVP, Regional Banking Executive (responsible for the treasury services division, which sells the payment-fraud controls BOK promotes)[11][29]
Joseph Rangel
Treasury Management Officer, Houston (teaches clients to recognise voice cloning and deepfake payment fraud)[29]
What AI roles is BOK Financial hiring for?
Data as of · 3 AI-titled postings · read from BOK Financial's own careers site, re-checked weekly
3 open AI-related postings on BOK Financial's careers site as of Oct 13, 2026. A snapshot of current openings, not a source: postings close. Compare with other banks on which banks are hiring for AI.
Tech Lead - Sr. Software Engineer
Tulsa, OK
Director, Enterprise Data Architecture
Tulsa, OK (+2 more)
Which regulators govern BOK Financial's AI?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| OCC | BOKF, N.A. is a national bank; any AI models in credit, fraud or operations fall under the OCC's model-risk and gen-AI supervisory expectations. | OCC Bulletin 2026-13 OCC Semiannual Risk Perspective, Spring 2026 |
| Federal Reserve | Holding-company supervision of model risk and third-party AI vendors. | SR 11-7 SR 23-4 |
| CFPB | Consumer and mortgage lending bring ECOA adverse-action and UDAAP duties to any AI in decisioning. | ECOA / Regulation B adverse action (15 U.S.C. 1691(d); 12 CFR 1002.9) |
Side by side: SR 11-7 vs SR 26-2 · OCC vs CFPB on AI lending · PRA SS1/23 vs SR 26-2 · MAS AI Risk Management Guidelines vs SR 26-2 · all comparisons.
What does the public record suggest about BOK Financial's AI strategy?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice.
01
The data-first hire is the signal
Appointing a chief data and analytics officer with an explicit AI remit is what precedes disclosure at peers; expect use-case announcements to follow.
02
Fraud content is a governance asset
BOK's own writing on AI-enabled phishing and ACH fraud documents that it understands the threat; the next step is disclosing the detection tools it runs.
03
Energy data is a moat
A curated warehouse on 200,000-plus wells is exactly the proprietary dataset AI underwriting needs; it is a differentiated place to build.
04
Thin record, not no record
Investors and examiners will read silence as caution; publishing AI governance principles would cost little and match the responsible-scaling framing.
Where does the BOK Financial record go deeper?
2 topic pages under this profile, each answering one question from the same sourced record.
Which leader rankings does BOK Financial appear in?
2 of the computed leaders rankings include BOK Financial, each ranked from the same sourced bank pages.
How does BOK Financial compare with its peers?
- How does BOK Financial Corporation compare with its peers on AI and technology?
- BOK Financial Corporation competitors and alternatives, by business line
Its peer group on this site, by business model and size:
Who leads AI at BOK Financial?
Shanthi Pudota, senior vice-president and chief data and analytics officer, leads BOK Financial's enterprise data and AI strategy. She joined from roles at Expedia Group, Discover Financial Services and Fannie Mae and is moving the bank to a data-first model designed to let analytics and AI scale responsibly. Chief Information Officer Derek Martin runs enterprise operations and IT; Chief Risk Officer Mindy Mahaney owns information security, to whom CISO Paul Tucker reports; Randy Kimmel runs the Vanilla trust-review deployment. There is no chief AI officer.
Has BOK Financial announced AI products?
No. As of September 2026 BOK Financial has not disclosed customer-facing AI products, AI spending or use-case counts. The one internal deployment on record comes from a vendor case study: Vanilla says BOK's Advisor Trust Services team uses its AI to review trust documents, saving roughly four hours per initial review. Its public AI content focuses on fraud awareness and healthcare industry research published on its editorial site, The Statement (now on bokfinancial.com/insights).
Does BOK Financial use AI against fraud?
It says so but gives no detail. In July 2025 Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer Paul Tucker said that while BOK is implementing AI in its systems to protect them, scammers use the same tools. In August 2026 treasury management officer Joseph Rangel said AI-powered tools can identify anomalies and recognise patterns humans miss. The bank names no fraud vendor, model or loss figure, and its client guidance stresses dual approvals, Positive Pay and call-back verification over technology alone.
How does BOK Financial govern AI?
The 2025 10-K says the board receives periodic updates on AI governance and risk management but does not approve individual AI capabilities; each initiative goes through an internal review of data quality, bias, regulatory compliance and ethics. BOK also wrote its own AI governance policy during a security review of nearly a year before adopting Vanilla. The CISO reports to Chief Risk Officer Mindy Mahaney and briefs the board Risk Committee quarterly.
What AI partners and patents does BOK Financial have?
Named technology relationships are Vanilla (AI trust-document review) and Mastercard (exclusive card network since January 2024). No Microsoft, AWS, OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Cloud AI agreement, GPU purchase or AI capital figure is public. Searches of Google Patents under BOKF, N.A., BOK Financial and Bank of Oklahoma did not identify any AI patent or published application assigned to the bank.
- Shanthi Pudota, SVP, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, BOK Financial (Digital Banking speaker profile)
- BOK counting on mortgage finance for a boost in 2026
- Top Banks by Reputation 2026: Customers
- BOK Financial Corporation reports quarterly earnings of $156 million in the first quarter
- Kymes: Credit is still very benign despite recent headlines
- AI a double-edged sword
- From wildcatting to data mapping
- How to help mitigate the risks of ACH and wire fraud
- BOK Financial Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- BOK Financial Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024
- BOK Financial Corporation 2026 Proxy Statement (DEF 14A): executive officers
- How BOK Financial Streamlines Trust Reviews with Vanilla
- How to protect your business from AI-enabled fraud
- Healthcare looks to AI to alleviate burnout, labor shortages
- Businesses brace for fraudulent payments
- AI shapes cloud spend amid adoption efforts
- Mastercard and BOK Financial Corporation announce expanded payments agreement
- BOK Financial (BOKF) Q3 2025 earnings call transcript
- Earnings call transcript: BOK Financial Q4 2025 earnings beat expectations
- The Women Behind Fintech's Most Important Infrastructure Decisions
- BOK Financial (BOKF) Q1 2026 earnings call transcript
- BOK Financial Corporation Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026
- How Trust Companies Can Use AI to Serve More Clients (webinar with BOK Financial)
- Railroads and the internet may offer insight into the path ahead with AI
- BOK Financial Corporation reports quarterly earnings of $177 million in the second quarter
- BOK Financial Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
- Earnings call transcript: BOK Financial beats Q2 2026 EPS forecast, shares slip
- BOK Financial Corporation Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026
- How to protect your business from AI-driven fraud: Q&A
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