# Citizens Financial Group: Virtual assistant

Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/citizens/virtual-assistant
Last updated: Oct 16, 2026

*Part of the [Citizens Financial Group AI strategy profile](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/citizens).*

## What is CiZi, and how is Citizens using AI assistants?

CiZi is the AI-powered digital assistant inside the Citizens mobile app, announced on November 19, 2024 as available 24/7 to set up direct deposit 'in seconds' and add a debit card to a digital wallet. Customers reach it through 'Get Help' in the app to manage cards, find statements and tax forms, and update contact details. The bank says CiZi has cut mobile-banking-related call volume by 44% and that usage rose 40% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2025. Behind it, Citizens is moving its phone channel to AI: it targets about 25% of calls handled without human interaction by year-end 2026 and about 50% over time, and AWS says Citizens' voice agents in the mobile app, built on Amazon Connect, took adoption from 0% to about 60%. Staff assistants sit alongside: a gen-AI knowledge tool for contact-centre representatives and, from 2026, a first enterprise-wide AI-chat agent starting with HR content. Chief Data and Analytics Officer Krish Swamy said in July 2026 that the chatbots answer questions but do not yet execute transactions. CiZi's underlying model and interaction counts are not disclosed. ([Citizens Financial Group](https://investor.citizensbank.com/about-us/newsroom/latest-news/2024/citizens-enhances-consumer-onboarding-experience.aspx), [Citizens](https://citizensbank.com/mobile-and-online-banking/cizi.aspx), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/citizen-financials-michael-ruttledge-is-43-on-the-most-innovative-people-in-finance-ranking), [Citizens Financial Group](https://investor.citizensbank.com/~/media/Files/C/CitizensBank-IR/pro-014217-2-cfg-ar-2025-web-ready.pdf), [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000070/a1q26earningspresentatio.htm), [AWS (Amazon Connect)](https://aws.amazon.com/products/connect/customer/resources/customer-contact-week), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/inside-citizens-plan-to-reimagine-itself-with-ai), [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000133/a2q26earningspresentatio.htm), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/leaders/the-ai-enabled-bank-reimagining-retail-banking-from-branch-to-mobile))

## How has CiZi developed since launch?

Launch, capabilities and reported results, oldest first.

| Date | Milestone | Detail | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| November 18, 2024 | Pilot described | Head of deposits Chris Powell says the goal is for CiZi to do tasks, not point to them: 'OK, the card's frozen. And would you like to submit a fraud claim?' | [The Financial Brand](https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/digital-banking/citizens-bank-sharpens-mobile-banking-app-182987) |
| November 19, 2024 | Launch announced | Available 24/7 in the mobile app with 'personalized banking support using AI capabilities'; sets up direct deposit in seconds and adds a debit card to a digital wallet | [Citizens Financial Group](https://investor.citizensbank.com/about-us/newsroom/latest-news/2024/citizens-enhances-consumer-onboarding-experience.aspx) |
| March 3, 2026 | Usage growth | CiZi usage up 40% year over year in 4Q25, per the 2025 Annual Review | [Citizens Financial Group](https://investor.citizensbank.com/~/media/Files/C/CitizensBank-IR/pro-014217-2-cfg-ar-2025-web-ready.pdf) |
| March 27, 2026 | More functions planned | Coughlin lists more CiZi functionality among app improvements over the next year or two; one customer-chat platform to replace several | [Banking Dive](https://www.bankingdive.com/news/citizens-ai-banking-reimagine-coughlin/815965/) |
| March 31, 2026 | How-to guide | Reached via 'Get Help'; walks customers through updating information, checking balances and reporting lost cards | [Citizens](https://www.citizensbank.com/learning/when-youre-busy-use-cizi.aspx) |
| June 1, 2026 | Call deflection | CiZi has reduced mobile-banking-related call volume by 44% | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/citizen-financials-michael-ruttledge-is-43-on-the-most-innovative-people-in-finance-ranking) |
| September 28, 2026 | Voice agents in the app | Per AWS, voice agents on Amazon Connect inside the mobile app took adoption from 0% to about 60% and shifted calls from the 800 number | [AWS (Amazon Connect)](https://aws.amazon.com/products/connect/customer/resources/customer-contact-week) |
| 2026 | Current capabilities | Manage cards, view balances, statements, check images and tax forms, review transactions, update contact information, find routing and account numbers | [Citizens](https://citizensbank.com/mobile-and-online-banking/cizi.aspx) |

## How much of Citizens' call volume will AI handle?

The first-quarter 2026 deck says Citizens is incorporating LLM functionality into call-centre operations, targeting about 25% of calls handled without human interaction by year-end 2026 and about 50% over time; the second-quarter deck adds AI tools in the credit-card contact centres and AI case classification of client inquiries. ([Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000070/a1q26earningspresentatio.htm), [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000133/a2q26earningspresentatio.htm))

About 70% of customer calls are answered overseas by a vendor, and Coughlin said those outsourced contracts, not Citizens employees, would be shed first. Van Saun framed the idea in September 2025 as bots replacing offshore call centres while 'well-trained agents here in the U.S.' handle the more sophisticated questions. ([Banking Dive](https://www.bankingdive.com/news/citizens-ai-banking-reimagine-coughlin/815965/), [Investing.com](https://investing.com/news/transcripts/citizens-financial-at-barclays-conference-strategic-growth-and-ai-focus-93CH-4229616))

Krish Swamy described LLMs as a translator that maps what callers say to a small set of intents, with some models run inside Citizens' own virtual private cloud; a gen-AI pilot reviews 100% of call transcripts for tone and accuracy against the 5% reviewed by people. ([American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/leaders/the-ai-enabled-bank-reimagining-retail-banking-from-branch-to-mobile), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/inside-citizens-plan-to-reimagine-itself-with-ai))

## What AI assistants do Citizens employees use?

| Assistant | Who uses it | What it does | Date | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Contact-centre product assistant | Customer service representatives | Gen-AI answers on products; one of the first two gen-AI uses in production, with a human validating answers | July 2024 | [Banking Dive](https://www.bankingdive.com/news/citizens-bank-cio-ruttledge-ai-banking-generative-genai/722507/) |
| Sage and on-screen product suggestions | Call-centre staff | Knowledge tool and product suggestions used by more than half of representatives; call resolution time down | December 2025 | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/inside-citizens-plan-to-reimagine-itself-with-ai) |
| Branch policy search | Branch staff | AI to look up policy and procedure; client-summary and next-best-action tools under consideration | April 2026 | [The Financial Brand](https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/customer-experience-banking/how-citizens-bank-will-amp-branch-performance-with-human-ai-teamwork-196808) |
| Enterprise AI-chat agent | All colleagues | First enterprise-wide AI-chat agent, starting with HR content | July 2026 | [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000133/a2q26earningspresentatio.htm) |
| Digital Butler | Commercial clients | Patented commercial-banking virtual assistant; 30,000 weekly users and 700 clients choosing it over the call centre (2024) | March 2024 | [Bank Automation News](https://bankautomationnews.com/allposts/ai/citizens-receives-patent-for-its-digital-butler) |

## What does the Citizens profile record on this topic?

| Date | Move | Detail | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Jul 30, 2026 | CDAO Swamy: LLMs as a translator for customer intent; models inside the bank's VPC | On an American Banker panel Krish Swamy said LLMs map what callers say to a small set of intents, that some models run inside Citizens' own VPC, that chatbots answer questions but do not yet execute transactions, and that commercial underwriters share a Copilot prompt library. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/leaders/the-ai-enabled-bank-reimagining-retail-banking-from-branch-to-mobile) |
| Jul 16, 2026 | Q2 2026: AI agents in the back office, a 10x engineering pilot | Back-office re-architecture with AI agents orchestrating end-to-end workflows, AI case classification, AI in credit-card contact centres and a first enterprise-wide AI-chat agent; about $7 million of program costs in the quarter. | [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000133/a2q26earningspresentatio.htm), [MarketBeat (Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/citizens-financial-group-q2-earnings-150449628.html), [PYMNTS](https://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2026/citizens-bank-mobilizes-ai-to-target-450-million-operational-savings-by-2028/), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/citizens-to-exit-in-store-branches-build-standalones-nearby), [Earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/07/23/citizens-financial-cfg-q2-2026-earnings-call-transcript) |
| Jun 1, 2026 | The mainframe goes: CIO's cloud-first claim | 700 applications migrated; CiZi −44% call volume; +55% output for engineers on advanced agents. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/citizen-financials-michael-ruttledge-is-43-on-the-most-innovative-people-in-finance-ranking) |
| Apr 16, 2026 | Q1 2026 call: reimagine programme self-funded by non-AI savings | Coughlin said over $30 million of vendor savings were already projected for 2026 and facility closures offset early investment, and that 25% of calls answered by non-humans should arrive in summer and early autumn; AI coding tests showed 30% productivity gains and in some cases 5x to 10x. | [Earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/04/16/citizens-cfg-q1-2026-earnings-call-transcript) |
| Apr 16, 2026 | Q1 2026: LLMs in the call centre, 25% of calls without a human by year-end | About 50% over time; GenAI automating private-company credit research; AI coding pilots showing 30% to 10x productivity gains; $6 million of implementation costs. | [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000070/a1q26earningspresentatio.htm), [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/citizens-financial-group-inc-q1-164633929.html) |
| Apr 15, 2026 | Branches: AI search for staff today, banker prep and next-best-action tools weighed | The head of branch distribution transformation said staff already use AI to look up policy and procedure, AI is being piloted as the voice behind the credit-card phone line, and tools that summarise a client before a meeting are under consideration. | [The Financial Brand](https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/customer-experience-banking/how-citizens-bank-will-amp-branch-performance-with-human-ai-teamwork-196808) |
| Mar 3, 2026 | 2025 Annual Review: first super-regional fully in the cloud; CiZi use up 40% | The shareholder review says Citizens became the first super-regional bank fully in the cloud in 2025, set up a transformation office for Reimagine the Bank, and that CiZi usage rose 40% year over year in 4Q25. | [Citizens Financial Group](https://investor.citizensbank.com/~/media/Files/C/CitizensBank-IR/pro-014217-2-cfg-ar-2025-web-ready.pdf) |
| Jan 21, 2026 | Q4 2025 deck: ~50 initiatives in five themes | Software productivity with AI, AI fraud detection, an 'AI Powered Banker' and KYC/AML streamlining among them; two-thirds of the benefit from expenses, about 5% of the 2025 expense base; call-centre modernisation and voice AI discussed on the call. | [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994426000017/a4q25earningspresentatio.htm), [MarketBeat (Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/citizens-financial-group-q4-earnings-162728449.html) |
| Oct 15, 2025 | Q3 2025 deck: agentic AI call centre and agentic infrastructure on the Reimagine list | The deck listed an agentic-AI-enabled call centre, building agentic AI infrastructure, AI-driven pricing, credit and collections, AI-driven fraud, KYC and AML tools, and further upskilling of AI/ML talent, with details promised for January. | [Citizens Financial Group (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/759944/000075994425000139/cfg3q25earningspresentat.htm) |
| Jul 17, 2025 | Van Saun: 'reimagining the bank with AI in mind' | The objective, set out on the Q2 2025 call, is to redesign how the bank serves customers and runs itself with gen and agentic AI; Van Saun told American Banker 'everything is fair game' and named customer service, fraud, AML and loan servicing as targets. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/inside-citizens-plan-to-reimagine-itself-with-ai), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/citizens-strong-q2-results-driven-by-rising-interest-income), [Earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2025/07/17/citizens-cfg-q2-2025-earnings-call-transcript) |
| Jul 26, 2024 | CIO: 90 gen-AI ideas, six pursued, two in production; Copilot pilot lifts productivity 20% | A hackathon produced over 90 ideas. The two live uses were Microsoft Copilot for engineers (pilot showed a 20% productivity boost; rollout to about 1,000 engineers planned) and a gen-AI product assistant for contact-centre staff. A human validates the code and the answers. | [Banking Dive](https://www.bankingdive.com/news/citizens-bank-cio-ruttledge-ai-banking-generative-genai/722507/) |
| Jun 4, 2024 | Van Saun: 'you have to walk before you run' with AI | At a Bernstein conference the CEO said Citizens was putting policies and governance in place first, called customer bots 'pretty advanced', and named code assistance and fraud detection as other targets. | [Banking Dive](https://www.bankingdive.com/news/citizens-ceo-bruce-van-saun-ai-banking-cloud-digital-trends/717947/) |

## Common questions

### What is CiZi?

CiZi is Citizens' AI-powered digital assistant in the Citizens mobile app, announced November 19, 2024. Customers open it from 'Get Help' to manage cards, view balances and statements, find tax forms and routing numbers, update contact information, set up direct deposit and add a debit card to a digital wallet. It is available 24/7.

### How well is CiZi working?

Citizens says CiZi has reduced mobile-banking-related call volume by 44%, per American Banker's June 2026 profile of CIO Michael Ruttledge, and its 2025 Annual Review reported CiZi usage up 40% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2025. The bank has not published interaction counts or resolution rates.

### Can CiZi make transactions?

Its listed functions are mostly servicing tasks such as card activation and updating contact details. Chief Data and Analytics Officer Krish Swamy said in July 2026 that the bank's chatbots answer questions but do not yet execute transactions; the 2024 vision was for CiZi to complete tasks such as freezing a card rather than point customers to them.

### Will AI replace Citizens' call-centre agents?

Citizens targets about 25% of calls handled without human interaction by year-end 2026 and about 50% over time. President Brendan Coughlin said the outsourced overseas contracts, which answer about 70% of calls, would be cut first, with Citizens' own agents handling more complex questions.

### What technology does Citizens use for its voice agents?

Amazon Connect, according to AWS. Its Customer Contact Week 2026 page says Citizens built voice agents directly into its mobile application by blending deterministic workflows with agentic AI, taking adoption from 0% to about 60%. Citizens has not named the language model behind CiZi.
## Deeper on Citizens

- [What is Citizens Financial Group's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/citizens/ai-strategy)
- [What AI partnerships and patents does Citizens Financial Group have?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/citizens/ai-research-patents-partnerships)
- [What technology stack does Citizens run its AI on?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/citizens/technology-stack)


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