How is AI changing Fifth Third's workforce?
Fifth Third has put AI tools in every employee's hands while a merger, not AI, reshaped its headcount. Full-time equivalent employees were 18,724 at the end of 2023, 18,616 at the end of 2024 and 18,676 at the end of 2025, then 25,197 at June 30, 2026 after the Comerica acquisition. Copilot access went to all employees in February 2025 and 56% were active users by December 2025, per the 2025 Sustainability Report; CEO Tim Spence's 2025 letter says all engineering teams use AI tools and that in the fourth quarter roughly 30% of new code was AI-generated. AI platforms reach the bank's 1,000-plus full-time and contract engineers through structured prompt-engineering pathways, which the report credits with returning 32,000-plus hours to engineering; by the second quarter of 2026 the prompt accepted rate for new code was 45%. Training added generative AI courses in 2025, including Leading with Generative AI for managers, plus a required AI policy acknowledgement. Spence told Bloomberg in March 2026 that AI is helping the bank double in size 'with fewer employees'. The job cuts announced so far are tied to Comerica and concentrated in overhead and non-customer-facing roles; Fifth Third has given no AI-specific headcount target.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Data as of Oct 31, 2026 · Fifth Third profile updated Oct 19, 2026 · 19 sources cited on this page · 141 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
How has Fifth Third's headcount changed as it adopted AI?
Full-time equivalent employees from the 10-K and 10-Q. The 2026 jump is the Comerica merger, which closed February 1, 2026.
| As of | Headcount | What was said | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 31, 2022 | 19,319 full-time equivalent employees | Comparison figure in the 2023 10-K | 2023 10-K[1] |
| December 31, 2023 | 18,724 full-time equivalent employees | Down from 19,319 a year earlier | 2023 10-K[1] |
| December 31, 2024 | 18,616 full-time equivalent employees | Spence's letter: value streams reached $150 million in annualized savings, with total headcount declining 1% year over year | 2024 10-K; 2024 annual report[2][10] |
| December 31, 2025 | 18,676 full-time equivalent employees | Generative AI training launched in 2025 among new development offerings | 2025 10-K[3] |
| June 30, 2026 | 25,197 full-time equivalent employees | After the Comerica merger; 18,690 a year earlier | Q2 2026 10-Q[4] |
| October 19, 2026 | Not restated | Spence: 'More than a third of the people on our team weren't part of our team a year ago'; the conversion took about four million hours of employee work | American Banker[11] |
How widely do Fifth Third employees use AI, and how are they trained?
| Date | Measure | What was reported |
|---|---|---|
| December 4, 2024 | Copilot rollout | Microsoft Copilot deployed to about 14,000 workers, around 5,000 using it daily; nearly 450 engineers on GitHub Copilot; another 100 employees testing M365 Copilot[12] |
| February 24, 2025 | 2024 letter | 'All of Fifth Third's code base is now on GitHub and we are scaling GitHub Copilot access to all engineering teams'; prompt acceptance rate over 20%[10] |
| February 2025 | Copilot for all employees | Copilot access launched to all employees; 56% were active Copilot users by December 2025[5] |
| 2025 | Copilot by the numbers | More than 3.8M prompts submitted; 35% of days worked assisted by Copilot for active users; 4.9 out of 5 average recommend-to-a-peer rating[5] |
| 2025 | Copilot Mavens program | About 150 early adopters tested Microsoft 365 Copilot; 98% average monthly usage, 300K Copilot actions and 5.2 hours saved per week[5] |
| 2025 | Engineers | AI platforms scaled to 1,000+ full-time and contract engineers with structured prompt engineering pathways and weekly progress reviews; 32,000+ hours returned to engineering[5] |
| February 24, 2026 | 2025 letter | All engineering teams use AI tools; roughly 30% of new code AI-generated and more than 80% of IT unit tests AI-executed in the fourth quarter; 56% of colleagues using AI tools daily[6] |
| February 24, 2026 | 2025 10-K | New development offerings in 2025 included 'generative Artificial Intelligence' training; employees logged over 550,000 hours of discretionary learning[3] |
| July 17, 2026 | Q2 2026 call | More than 1 million prompts in June; prompt accepted rate for new code 45%; over 87% of unit testing automated by AI; 'We do intend to accelerate the pace of investments that we make in AI'[7] |
What has Fifth Third said about AI and jobs?
Spence's clearest statement came on Bloomberg Television in March 2026: AI is writing 40% of the bank's code and 'helping double the company's size with fewer employees'. He has not put a number on roles AI has removed, and the 10-Ks attribute headcount changes to the business, not to AI.[8][3]
The cuts on the record are merger cuts. On the January 20, 2026 call Spence thanked employees 'who will not be continuing with us on this journey'; Fifth Third's $850 million of Comerica cost savings come mainly from 'the elimination of facilities, systems, vendors, and some headcount reductions concentrated in overhead and noncustomer-facing roles', and a Texas WARN notice listed 184 Comerica jobs cut at Frisco.[9]
The training record is broader than AI: the 2025 report says the bank introduced Leading with Generative AI for managers and treats generative AI as 'One of the most significant forces shaping the future of the workforce', organized in four pillars: AI for employees, engineers, business processes and customers. It does not report AI training completion rates beyond the compliance module.[5]
What does the Fifth Third profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the Fifth Third AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 19, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 33 dated moves, 13 use cases and 50 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-assisted software development and testing | 45% prompt accepted rate for new code and over 87% of unit testing automated by AI (Q2 2026); more than 1 million prompts by colleagues in June 2026. | In production | [7] |
| GitHub Copilot and AI code generation | About 450 engineers on GitHub Copilot in December 2024; about 1,000 engineers with AI tools by June 2026; the CEO said on Bloomberg TV that AI writes about 40% of code (a third of released code in 2025, rising to 40% in the first two months of 2026, per Bloomberg Law) and the Q2 2026 prompt accepted rate for new code was 45%. | In production | [12][13][8][14][7] |
| Microsoft Copilot for employees | Microsoft 365 Copilot at about 14,000 workers, about 5,000 of them daily users, with humans in the loop for decisions (December 2024). | In production | [12][15] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 15, 2026 | Barclays conference: AI in the conversion, bilingual Jeanie and search usage doubles | COO Jamie Leonard says Jeanie now handles all intents in Spanish and English, and search and Jeanie activity doubled in the first week for former Comerica customers; AI was used for conversion monitoring, code writing and due-diligence savings work. | [16] |
| Sep 14, 2026 | Investor deck lists 'Agentic Jeanie' as a 2026 milestone | Barclays conference presentation: 'Agentic Jeanie & universal search powered by AI' in the bank's two-decade timeline; about 25,200 employees and $300 billion of assets after Comerica. | [17] |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Q2 2026 call: AI metrics for engineering and a pledge to accelerate AI spend | 1 million-plus prompts in June; 45% prompt accepted rate for new code; 87%-plus of unit testing automated by AI; an AI 'intelligence layer' monitoring the Comerica conversion. | [7] |
| Jun 1, 2026 | CIO: about 1,000 engineers on AI tools, caution on agents | Schramm lists AI in lending and credit processes and a multilingual chatbot as 2026 priorities; real-time payments throughput rose from 35 to 140 transactions a second and technology changes saved $200 million a year; on agents touching deposit and loan systems, 'we've got to be really intentional'. | [13] |
| Apr 9, 2026 | 'AI will help banks out-code vendors' | Consumer lending head Jay Plum on eroding reliance on core providers and continuous 'mini reviews' for exams. | [18] |
| Mar 11, 2026 | Spence: AI is writing 40% of the bank's code | Bloomberg Open Interest interview: AI is helping the bank double in size with fewer employees, and the next phase is AI that executes financial tasks for customers. | [8][14] |
| Feb 24, 2026 | 2025 10-K names AI as a technology and internal-control risk | AI may be developed internally or supplied by third- or fourth-party providers and could significantly affect internal controls; AI-enabled cyber-attacks may be harder to detect; generative AI training launched for leaders in 2025. | [3] |
| Feb 13, 2025 | NLU training patent application published | US 2025/0054493 A1, Methods and systems for training and deploying natural language understanding models, filed 10 August 2023 by Fifth Third Bank, N.A. | [19] |
| Jan 16, 2025 | Four AI pillars and an Enterprise Data Office | Schramm names four pillars (empowering employees, enhancing engineering, streamlining business processes, improving customer interactions); the Enterprise Data Office governs AI deployments and a dedicated AI group handles generative AI and intelligent automation. | [15] |
| Dec 4, 2024 | CIO: buy-partner-build, with Copilot at scale | Microsoft Copilot deployed to about 14,000 workers (about 5,000 daily users) and GitHub Copilot to about 450 engineers; humans stay in the loop and generative AI is not yet used with external customers. | [12] |
How many employees does Fifth Third have?
25,197 full-time equivalent employees at June 30, 2026, after the Comerica merger, up from 18,690 a year earlier, per the Q2 2026 10-Q. Before the merger the 10-Ks show 18,724 at the end of 2023, 18,616 at the end of 2024 and 18,676 at the end of 2025.
How many Fifth Third employees use AI?
All employees have had Copilot access since February 2025, and 56% were active users by December 2025, per the 2025 Sustainability Report; Spence's letter says 56% used AI tools daily in the fourth quarter. All of the bank's 1,000-plus full-time and contract engineers use AI for coding.
Is Fifth Third cutting jobs because of AI?
It has not announced AI-driven cuts. CEO Tim Spence said in March 2026 that AI is helping the bank double in size with fewer employees, but the job reductions on the record are tied to the Comerica merger and concentrated in overhead and non-customer-facing roles. The bank has given no AI-specific headcount target.
How much of Fifth Third's code does AI write?
Roughly 30% of new code was AI-generated in the fourth quarter of 2025, per Spence's 2025 letter, and he told Bloomberg in March 2026 that AI was writing 40% of the bank's code. The prompt accepted rate for new code was 45% in the second quarter of 2026, and over 87% of unit testing was automated by AI.
Is Fifth Third hiring for AI?
Yes. BankingNewsAI's weekly read of Fifth Third's careers site on October 27, 2026 listed a principal AI engineer for AI transformation, an AI engineer for automated channels, an AI risk management senior associate and data scientists, all in Cincinnati. Postings change weekly and are not cited as sources; see /banks/ai-hiring.
- Fifth Third Bancorp Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2023
- Fifth Third Bancorp Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2024
- Fifth Third Bancorp Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025
- Fifth Third Bancorp Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026
- Fifth Third Bancorp 2025 Sustainability Report
- Fifth Third Bancorp 2025 Annual Report (letter from the chairman, CEO and president; Form 10-K exhibit)
- Fifth Third (FITB) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- Watch Fifth Third CEO: AI Writing 40% of Code
- Fifth Third CEO flags acquisition-related cuts
- Fifth Third Bancorp 2024 Annual Report (letter from the chairman, CEO and president; Form 10-K exhibit)
- After Comerica integration, Fifth Third vows focus on growth
- Why Fifth Third's CIO mostly buys rather than builds tech in the race to compete against banking giants
- Fifth Third's CIO is focused on enterprise-viable AI
- Fifth Third Sees 'Pretty Remarkable' AI Ability to Cut Costs (1)
- Fifth Third Bank's CIO On AI, Cloud And Customer-Centric Innovation
- Fifth Third at Barclays conference: Comerica deal lifts growth plans (transcript)
- Fifth Third Bancorp presentation at the 2026 Barclays Global Financial Services Conference (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Fifth Third official: AI will help banks 'out-code' vendors
- US 2025/0054493 A1: Methods and systems for training and deploying natural language understanding models (applicant Fifth Third Bank NA; filed 2023-08-10)
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