The most aggressive AI adopter in the rank-51-to-100 group: a multiyear collaboration that embeds OpenAI engineers on site, a stated 2026 priority to 'operationalize AI at scale', 100% of staff AI-trained, and a CEO who used an AI clone of himself on an earnings call.
How is Customers Bank using AI?
Customers Bancorp, the West Reading, Pennsylvania parent of Customers Bank with about $26 billion of assets, roughly 870 employees and a business-bank model built on single-point-of-contact service, instant payments and specialty verticals, has made AI its identity. Its January 2026 investor deck lists 'Operationalize AI at Scale' among five 2026 priorities, reports an AI Innovation Lab, 100% of employees AI-trained and a standardised AI risk framework, and quantifies results: AI-powered call-centre scoring with 85% greater efficiency, AI-powered loan account opening that reduced workflow by 68%, and AI sanctions screening 50% more accurate, with a 2026 operational-excellence initiative targeting $20 million a year whose expense levers include 'process automation for AI'. On 27 April 2026 the bank announced a multiyear strategic collaboration with OpenAI, extending a relationship that began with ChatGPT Enterprise in 2023, under which OpenAI technical teams work on site to build custom capabilities for lending, deposit onboarding and payments; president and CEO Sam Sidhu said it gives the bank 'the frontier models, engineering expertise and ability to co-create a roadmap toward becoming an AI native bank' and that 'we expect a fundamental re-engineering of how Customers Bank operates'. On the first-quarter call Sidhu handed part of his remarks to an AI clone of his voice, calling the call 'a live demonstration of what we mean when we say AI is not an experiment', and reported more than 500 employee-built agents and models and 28,000 hours saved, equivalent to 15 full-time staff; 75% of employees use OpenAI-powered tools. By the second quarter the bank had completed a pilot closing selected commercial loans in seven days, down from 30 to 60, one to two quarters ahead of schedule, seen prospecting success rates more than double in some verticals, and piloted AI-powered KYC screening and OFAC false-positive clearing, alongside second-quarter net income to common of $71.6 million, or $2.05 per share, and record deposits of $21.7 billion. Chief strategy and innovation officer Carlos Coto leads strategy. The second-quarter investor deck updated the count to more than 46,000 self-reported hours saved, 600-plus agents, 100% of staff AI-licensed and a 40-person AI mobilization team, and management is targeting a low-40s efficiency ratio in 2027 from about 50%. Sidhu told CNBC that AI already writes about half the bank's software code, and in June 2026 the bank added ElevenLabs voice and chat agents for customer service and account opening. The 2025 10-K says the business 'increasingly relies on AI, machine learning and automated decision making' and flags evolving AI regulation and AI-driven stress in borrowers' industries as risks. Customers Bank is a Pennsylvania state member bank supervised by the Federal Reserve; the OpenAI deal's financial terms are undisclosed.
Lead bank
Customers Bank
Assets (lead bank, Mar 31, 2026)
$26 billion
Charter
Pennsylvania state member bank (Federal Reserve)
Headquarters
West Reading, PA
Flagship platform
OpenAI strategic collaboration, AI Innovation Lab and cubiX payments network
AI leadership
Sam Sidhu · Carlos Coto · Steve Wyremski · Nick Harris
- Multiyear OpenAI collaboration (27 April 2026): OpenAI engineers on site building custom AI for lending, deposits and payments on the bank's infrastructure; goal an 'AI native bank'.
- 2026 priority to 'operationalize AI at scale': AI Innovation Lab, 100% of employees AI-trained, standardised AI risk framework; 75% of staff use OpenAI tools.
- Quantified results: call-centre scoring 85% more efficient, loan account opening workflow cut 68%, sanctions screening 50% more accurate, 28,000 hours saved, 500-plus employee-built agents and models.
- Q2 2026 pilot closed selected commercial loans in seven days versus 30 to 60; prospecting success up more than 100% in select verticals; AI KYC and OFAC false-positive clearing piloted.
- CEO Sam Sidhu used an AI clone of his voice on the Q1 2026 earnings call as a demonstration.
- Q2 2026 net income to common $71.6 million ($2.05 per share); record deposits $21.7 billion; cubiX network past $5 trillion cumulative volume.
- Q2 2026 update: 46,000-plus hours saved (self-reported, as of 3 July 2026), 600-plus agents, 100% of staff AI-licensed (75% in Q1) and a 40-person AI mobilization team; management targets a low-40s efficiency ratio in 2027.
- AI writes about half of the bank's software code (CEO to CNBC, April 2026); ElevenLabs voice and chat agents announced in June 2026 for service, relationship-manager assist and account opening.
- 2025 10-K: an AI risk factor on evolving regulation ('Our business increasingly relies on AI'), AI as a credit risk in borrowers' industries, and enterprise-wide AI training launched in 2025.
- Governance roots (2024): an executive 'AI charter' group meeting monthly, an acceptable-use policy and a use-case scoring framework; 99% of staff through 'First Pass' AI training.
What is OpenAI strategic collaboration, AI Innovation Lab and cubiX payments network?
Customers Bank adopted ChatGPT Enterprise in 2023 and on 27 April 2026 announced a multiyear strategic collaboration with OpenAI that places OpenAI technical teams on site to build custom AI capabilities across lending, deposits and payments, including AI-enabled document collection, digital account onboarding, post-closing portfolio and collateral monitoring and AI-driven risk tools, running on the bank's own infrastructure. The bank has created an AI Innovation Lab, trained 100% of employees on AI, adopted a standardised AI risk framework, and by the first quarter of 2026 employees had built more than 500 agents and custom AI models, with AI workflows saving 28,000 hours; 75% of staff use OpenAI-powered tools. Reported outcomes include an AI-powered call-centre scoring tool with 85% greater efficiency, AI-powered loan account opening that cut workflow by 68%, sanctions screening 50% more accurate, and a Q2 2026 pilot that closed selected commercial loans in seven days instead of 30 to 60. Its cubiX instant-payments network passed $5 trillion of cumulative volume in Q2 2026.[4][5][3][7]
What has Customers Bank done on AI, and when?
- Jul 24, 2026
Q2 2026 call: low-40s efficiency target for 2027[20]
OpenAI engineers on custom capabilities; multi-agent credit underwriting closed some C&I and CRE loans within a week; efficiency ratio targeted at a low-40% run-rate in 2027 from about 50%.
- Jul 23, 2026
Q2 2026 deck: 46,000 hours, 600 agents, 100% licensed[19]
Agentic pods pair engineers with bankers; a 40-person AI mobilization team; top-down targets of a seven-day loan close, commercial onboarding in minutes, and a cubiX agentic interface handling nearly 2 billion client API requests by year-end 2026.
- Jul 23, 2026
Second-quarter 2026 results[7]
Seven-day loan closings piloted; AI KYC and OFAC clearing; net income to common $71.6 million.
- Jun 2, 2026
ElevenLabs conversational agents[18]
Voice and digital service agents, real-time assist for relationship managers and conversational account opening on ElevenAgents.
- Apr 28, 2026
600 staff join an AI masterclass[17]
Fortune reports the masterclass alongside the AI-clone call; the CEO says the aim is removing repetitive administrative work, not replacing judgment.
- Apr 27, 2026
- Apr 27, 2026
- Apr 24, 2026
AI clone of the CEO speaks on the Q1 earnings call[5]
500-plus agents and models built; 28,000 hours saved.
- Apr 23, 2026
Q1 2026 deck: AI roadmap and per-employee metrics[14]
Roadmap from a governance-and-data foundation (2024) through piloting use cases in production (2025) and deploying use cases and agentic resources (2026) to end-to-end mass deployment (2027+); revenue per employee $981,000 in 2025.
- Apr 15, 2026
Shareholder letter: 'This is not AI theater'[13]
AI in production writing code, automating manual processes, routing customer communications and accelerating underwriting; phase two is end-to-end workflows run by AI agents under human supervision.
- Feb 27, 2026
2025 10-K: AI risk factors and AI training[12]
A standalone risk factor on evolving AI regulation says the business 'increasingly relies on AI, machine learning and automated decision making'; AI disruption of borrowers' industries is flagged as a credit risk; enterprise-wide AI training launched in 2025.
- Jan 26, 2026
Steve Wyremski named chief operating officer[11]
Former CFO of a $100 billion-plus bank, who had accelerated Customers' finance and data modernization as a strategic advisor since 2024.
- Jan 23, 2026
Q4 2025 call: every employee trained on AI[10]
Work under way on workflow orchestration, automated onboarding, AI support for underwriting and credit-memo drafting, and risk and compliance automation.
- Jan 22, 2026
Investor deck: 'Operationalize AI at Scale' as a 2026 priority[3]
AI Innovation Lab; 100% of staff trained; quantified efficiency gains.
- Nov 18, 2025
West Coast expansion[2]
New offices; 'high-tech capabilities with local, high-touch relationships'.
- Oct 24, 2025
Q3 2025 call: more than 100 agentic AI use cases[9]
Sidhu traces the programme to a cross-functional AI discovery team formed in December 2023, cites about a 10% productivity lift in various areas and says the bank is preparing to test over 100 agentic AI use cases.
- Jul 28, 2025
CEO on stablecoins and the GENIUS Act[1]
Sidhu to become holding-company CEO on 1 January 2026.
- Jul 15, 2024
AI charter, acceptable-use policy and 'First Pass' training[8]
CIO Nick Harris describes an executive AI charter group meeting monthly on compliance, risk and use cases, a scoring framework for AI uses, a cross-functional AI Discovery team, and 99% of staff trained since Q1 2024; AI not yet in the transaction stream.
Where does Customers Bank use AI today?
| System | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-powered loan closing and account opening[7][3] | Selected commercial loans closed in seven days versus 30 to 60; account-opening workflow cut 68%. | Pilot | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| AI KYC screening and OFAC false-positive clearing[7][3] | Sanctions screening accuracy up 50%; consistency and defensibility of compliance processes. | Pilot | AML / KYC |
| AI call-centre scoring[3] | 85% greater efficiency and full visibility into customer interactions. | In production | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Employee-built agents and custom models on OpenAI[5][4] | 500-plus agents; 75% of staff on OpenAI tools; on-site OpenAI engineering. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Standardised AI risk framework and AI Innovation Lab[3] | Enterprise governance for scaled deployment. | In production | AI governance (general) |
| AI charter, acceptable-use policy and use-case scoring[8] | Monthly executive AI charter meetings on compliance, risk and policy; uses scored on value, cost, time to develop and risk. | In production | AI governance (general) |
| AI risk-factor disclosure[12] | The 10-K carries a standalone risk factor on evolving AI regulation and names AI disruption of borrowers' industries and AI-enabled hacking as risks. | In production | Model risk management |
| AI-written software code[15][16] | About half the bank's software code is written by AI, per the CEO. | In production | AI-generated code & coding agents |
| ElevenLabs voice and chat agents[18] | Always-available service agents, real-time assist for relationship managers and conversational account opening. | Announced | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Agentic commercial onboarding and cubiX agentic interface[19][7] | Commercial deposit onboarding in minutes rather than hours; an agentic interface for cubiX payments targeting nearly 2 billion client API requests by year-end 2026. | Pilot | Generative & agentic AI |
Use-case links open the tracker's rules-by-use-case matrix: which documents govern each system type.
Which AI vendors and fintechs does Customers Bank work with?
| Company | What Customers Bank uses it for | Status | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Enterprise (OpenAI) | ChatGPT Enterprise since 2023; 75% of team members use OpenAI-powered tools; multiyear collaboration with on-site OpenAI engineers from April 2026. | In production | Enterprise AI assistants |
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 Customers Bank disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Hours saved by AI workflows (Q1 2026) | 28,000 (≈ 15 FTE)[5] | Apr 27, 2026 |
| Employee-built agents and custom AI models | > 500[5] | Apr 27, 2026 |
| Commercial loan closing time in pilot | 7 days, from 30 to 60[7] | Jul 23, 2026 |
| Q2 2026 net income to common / diluted EPS | $71.6 million / $2.05[7] | Jul 23, 2026 |
| cubiX cumulative network volume | > $5 trillion[7] | Jul 23, 2026 |
| Hours saved by AI (self-reported survey) | > 46,000[19] | Jul 3, 2026 |
| Agents deployed (incl. custom GPTs) | > 600[19] | Jul 23, 2026 |
| Staff with AI licences | 100% (75% in Q1 2026)[19][14] | Jul 23, 2026 |
| AI mobilization team | 40 FTEs[19] | Jul 23, 2026 |
| Share of software code written by AI | ≈ 50%[15] | Apr 27, 2026 |
| Efficiency-ratio target | Low 40s in 2027, from ≈ 50%[20][15] | Jul 24, 2026 |
| Revenue per employee | $981,000 (2025) vs $910,000 (2024)[14] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Prospecting success-rate improvement in select verticals | > 100%[7] | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Staff through 'First Pass' AI training | 99%[8] | Jul 15, 2024 |
“This strategic collaboration with OpenAI gives us the frontier models, engineering expertise and ability to co-create a roadmap toward becoming an AI native bank.”[5]
Sam Sidhu · President and CEO · Apr 27, 2026
“We completed a pilot of our new AI-powered loan closing process, which included successfully closing selected commercial loans in seven days, down from 30 to 60 days typically.”[7]
Sam Sidhu · President and CEO · Jul 23, 2026
“This is not AI theater. We measure it in cycle time, cost per transaction, and error rates, not just in adoption statistics or training.”[13]
Sam Sidhu · President and CEO · Apr 15, 2026
“When you have an autonomous agent, you're essentially creating a digital worker … and they can work around the clock.”[15][16]
Sam Sidhu · President and CEO · Apr 27, 2026
“The goal is to remove the repetitive, administrative work so our people can focus on what they do best—we're not replacing critical thinking and judgment, we're removing the tedious, time-consuming work that gets in the way of it.”[17]
Sam Sidhu · President and CEO · Apr 28, 2026
“Working with ElevenLabs enables us to combine cutting-edge AI with our high-touch service model, giving our customers immediate access to support while ensuring the human connection remains at the center of everything we do.”[18]
Sam Sidhu · President and CEO · Jun 2, 2026
“We prompt employees to use AI to optimize their day and find efficiencies. How to use AI responsibly will be ubiquitous for knowledge workers in the future.”[8]
Nick Harris · Chief Information Officer · Jul 15, 2024
Who runs AI at Customers Bank?
Sam SidhuLinkedIn ↗
Carlos CotoLinkedIn ↗
Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer[6]
Steve WyremskiLinkedIn ↗
EVP, Chief Operating Officer (from January 2026; led finance and data modernization as strategic advisor from 2024)[11]
Nick Harris
Chief Information Officer (as profiled in July 2024)[8]
What AI roles is Customers Bank hiring for?
1 open AI-related posting on Customers Bank's careers site as of Sep 24, 2026. A snapshot of current openings, not a source: postings close.
Azure Cloud Engineer, AI & Automation
Malvern, PA
Which regulators govern Customers Bank's AI?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Reserve | Customers Bank is a state member bank; the OpenAI dependency and custom models sit squarely under SR 23-4 third-party and SR 11-7 model-risk guidance. | SR 23-4 SR 11-7 |
| FinCEN | AI-driven KYC screening and OFAC false-positive clearing must satisfy BSA/AML model expectations and the innovation statement. | 2018 Joint Statement on BSA/AML Innovation |
| CFPB | Automated account opening and lending decisions carry adverse-action and UDAAP duties. | ECOA / Regulation B adverse action (15 U.S.C. 1691(d); 12 CFR 1002.9) |
| SEC | Quantified AI claims in earnings materials and an AI-cloned CEO voice invite scrutiny of AI-related disclosure. | Division of Examinations FY2026 Priorities |
Side by side: SR 11-7 vs SR 26-2 · PRA SS1/23 vs SR 26-2 · OCC vs CFPB on AI lending · all comparisons.
What does the public record suggest about Customers Bank's AI strategy?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice.
01
This is the template for an AI-first regional bank
Named priorities, quantified outcomes, a lab, universal training and a vendor partnership; peers describing AI as 'evolution' will be compared against it.
02
Concentration on one model provider is the exam question
OpenAI engineers on site and models on bank infrastructure reduce data-leakage risk but deepen dependence; exit and substitution plans belong in the SR 23-4 file.
03
Compliance pilots need validation before scale
AI KYC and OFAC clearing are exactly where FinCEN and examiners will want independent model validation and false-negative testing.
04
Self-reported productivity is not audited productivity
Survey-based gains and hours-saved figures should be paired with expense and revenue-per-employee trends investors can verify.
Does Customers Bank use AI?
Extensively. Customers Bank has a multiyear collaboration with OpenAI that embeds OpenAI engineers on site to build AI for lending, deposits and payments, trains all employees on AI, runs an AI Innovation Lab, and reports quantified gains such as commercial loans closed in seven days instead of 30 to 60, 500-plus employee-built agents and 28,000 hours saved.
What is the Customers Bank and OpenAI deal?
Announced 27 April 2026, it is a multiyear strategic collaboration under which OpenAI technical teams work on site at Customers Bank to build custom AI capabilities on the bank's infrastructure, focused on end-to-end workflows in lending, deposit onboarding and payments. Financial terms were not disclosed. CEO Sam Sidhu says the goal is to become an AI-native bank.
- 'Pie is getting bigger faster': Customers CEO on stablecoins
- Customers in Pennsylvania announces West Coast expansion
- Customers Bancorp Q4 2025 Investor Presentation
- Customers Bank Announces Strategic Collaboration with OpenAI to Redefine the Commercial Banking Operating Model
- OpenAI will embed staff at Customers Bank under multiyear deal
- Carlos Coto | Digital Banking (speaker profile)
- Customers Bancorp Reports Results for Second Quarter 2026
- Customers Bank's Dynamic AI Strategy
- Customers Bancorp Q3 2025 Earnings Transcript
- Customers Bancorp Q4 Earnings Call Highlights
- Customers Bank Appoints Stephen Wyremski as Chief Operating Officer (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Customers Bancorp, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Customers Bancorp Annual Shareholder Letter 2026 (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Customers Bancorp Q1 2026 Investor Presentation (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.2)
- This bank CEO let his AI clone handle an earnings call — now he's signing an OpenAI deal
- Customers Bank deepens ties with OpenAI
- CEO of a $25.9 billion bank had his AI clone lead the company’s earnings call—as Mark Zuckerberg builds his own digital twin
- Customers Bank and ElevenLabs to Deploy AI-Powered Conversational Agents Across Customer and Employee Experiences
- Customers Bancorp Q2 2026 Investor Presentation (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.2)
- Customers Bancorp Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
When Customers Bank moves on AI, you'll read it here first.
when one of the banks we cover moves on AI, it is in the next morning's brief · six sourced stories · 7 am ET · free
plus every tracker, bank and agent page update, the morning after · leave any morning