# First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO): Proprietary AI

Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fnbo/proprietary-ai
Last updated: Oct 22, 2026

*Part of the [First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) AI strategy profile](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fnbo).*

## What proprietary AI has FNBO built in-house?

FNBO has described internal generative-AI tools and machine-learning models built by its own teams, but it has not named an in-house model or published adoption figures through an official channel. In a January 2025 PYMNTS interview, vice president of product Cory Mann said FNBO uses 'tools like internal chat and internal knowledge bases' to sort through 'countless pages of policy information, procedures and ways to operate', uses generative AI to categorize 'the tremendous amount' of customer feedback passed to employees, and uses it to generate code more quickly in its own software development. In March 2026 Arun Swarnabadran, director of data engineering, said the bank uses Snowflake's Cortex Code agent 'to automate ML development for forecasting and anomaly detection on our call center analytics', and that it had 'increased our productivity by 10x'. Erin Saxby, vice president of technology data services, leads the technology data teams and spearheads the bank's generative-AI strategy. The AI closest to regulated decisions is bought: Nasdaq Verafin's enhanced-due-diligence and sanctions agents, developed on AWS Bedrock, save FNBO's 15 financial-crime investigators and analysts about 50% of their time, per American Banker in June 2026. FNBO names no large-language-model supplier for its internal tools. ([PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/), [FNBO](https://fnbo.com/insights/commercial-business/2025/genai-in-banking-is-enhancing-customer-experiences), [Snowflake](https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/agentic-ml-snowflake-predictive-insights/), [University of Nebraska Omaha](https://www.unomaha.edu/omaxai/speakers/past-speakers/erin-saxby.php), [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/how-fnbo-uses-agentic-ai-to-investigate-financial-crime))

## Which AI tools and models has FNBO described as its own?

Only uses FNBO staff have described in public. None has a published product name, model supplier or user count on an official channel; 'Since' is the earliest public date, not the launch date.

| Platform or model | What it does | Built on | Since | Status | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Internal chat and internal knowledge bases | Help employees sort through 'countless pages of policy information, procedures and ways to operate' | Not disclosed | January 2025 | In use, per the VP of product | [PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/) |
| Customer-feedback categorization | Generative AI sorts and categorizes customer feedback as it is passed to employees, so issues are resolved in a timely way | Not disclosed | January 2025 | In use, per FNBO | [PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/), [FNBO](https://fnbo.com/insights/commercial-business/2025/genai-in-banking-is-enhancing-customer-experiences) |
| AI-assisted software development | Generative AI used 'to fine tune its own software development to generate code more quickly', shortening product development cycles | Not disclosed | January 2025 | In use, per the VP of product | [PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/) |
| Call-center forecasting and anomaly-detection models | Machine-learning models on call-center analytics; development automated with Snowflake's Cortex Code coding agent | Snowflake ML and Cortex Code (vendor tooling; models built by FNBO's data engineering team) | March 2026 | In use; FNBO cites a 10x productivity gain | [Snowflake](https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/agentic-ml-snowflake-predictive-insights/) |

## Which FNBO teams build and run its AI?

| Team or person | Role in AI | Date | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Erin Saxby, VP technology data services | Leads the technology data teams and spearheads the generative-AI strategy, 'overseeing teams responsible for both foundational data capabilities and cutting-edge AI innovations' | October 2025 | [University of Nebraska Omaha](https://www.unomaha.edu/omaxai/speakers/past-speakers/erin-saxby.php) |
| Arun Swarnabadran, director of data engineering | Speaks for the call-center forecasting and anomaly-detection work built in Snowflake ML | March 2026 | [Snowflake](https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/agentic-ml-snowflake-predictive-insights/) |
| Cory Mann, VP product | Oversees the customer experience function, where generative AI categorizes customer feedback | January 2025 | [PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/), [FNBO](https://fnbo.com/insights/commercial-business/2025/genai-in-banking-is-enhancing-customer-experiences) |
| David Dawson, BSA/AML officer, and 15 investigators and analysts | Review the artifacts and summaries the vendor agents produce; humans decide on escalation | June 2026 | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/how-fnbo-uses-agentic-ai-to-investigate-financial-crime) |

## What does FNBO build itself and what does it buy?

FNBO's in-house work sits in employee productivity and analytics: internal chat, knowledge bases, feedback triage, code generation and call-center models. Mann said generative AI 'helps us connect the dots that historically we were unable to connect', and that it starts from 'a stable foundation' of data with strong governance and oversight. ([PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/), [FNBO](https://fnbo.com/insights/commercial-business/2025/genai-in-banking-is-enhancing-customer-experiences))

The AI in financial-crime work comes from vendors. Nasdaq Verafin's two agents run inside an AML system FNBO already used and are developed on AWS Bedrock, which Nasdaq Verafin says makes them model-agnostic; the agents receive the same access privileges a human would for the same task. Pindrop's Fraud Assist uses generative AI to translate and summarize fraud calls, and consumer loans have run through Upstart's AI lending platform since a 2019 pilot. Mann's 'memo' to generative-AI providers asked them to partner with banks on fraud. ([American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/how-fnbo-uses-agentic-ai-to-investigate-financial-crime), [Pindrop (GlobeNewswire)](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/03/17/3257231/0/en/pindrop-unveils-first-agentic-fraud-investigation-solution-to-combat-surging-ai-driven-fraud.html), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/the-banks-warming-to-ai-based-lending), [FNBO and Upstart (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211208005384/en/First-National-Bank-of-Omaha-Expands-Personal-Loans-Powered-by-Upstart), [PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/))

## What has FNBO not disclosed about its in-house AI?

No official FNBO source names its internal assistant, the large-language model behind it, the number of employees using it or the size of the AI team. FNBO has not published an in-house foundation model, a model gateway or a research program, and no patent tied to an internal AI system has been found. ([PYMNTS.com](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/data-connects-the-dots-to-new-revenue-opportunities-for-banks/), [University of Nebraska Omaha](https://www.unomaha.edu/omaxai/speakers/past-speakers/erin-saxby.php))

As a private bank, FNBO files no 10-K and holds no earnings calls, so there is no AI budget or adoption metric on the record. The 10x figure for call-center modeling is a productivity claim made by an FNBO director in Snowflake's own blog post, not an audited result. ([First National of Nebraska / FNBO](https://www.fnbo.com/content/dam/fnni/documents/2025-financial-summary.pdf), [Snowflake](https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/agentic-ml-snowflake-predictive-insights/))

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

| Date | Move | Detail | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Jun 24, 2026 | Agents run under human-equivalent access controls | FNBO has 15 financial-crime investigators and analysts; an enhanced-due-diligence case of about 30 minutes now takes about 15; Baxter says the bank started with jobs that were easy to explain. | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/how-fnbo-uses-agentic-ai-to-investigate-financial-crime) |
| Jun 24, 2026 | AI agents cut financial-crime investigation time by 50% | Nasdaq Verafin agents for EDD and sanctions triage, on AWS Bedrock. | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/how-fnbo-uses-agentic-ai-to-investigate-financial-crime) |
| Mar 17, 2026 | Pindrop Fraud Assist agent cuts fraud-case time 35–40% | FNBO among the first customers; analyst accuracy +50%, case productivity +42% without new headcount. | [Pindrop (GlobeNewswire)](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/03/17/3257231/0/en/pindrop-unveils-first-agentic-fraud-investigation-solution-to-combat-surging-ai-driven-fraud.html) |
| Sep 11, 2025 | Head of technology data named as OMA x AI presenter | Erin Saxby, vice president of technology data services, listed as a breakout presenter at the 7 October 2025 Omaha conference. | [University of Nebraska Omaha](https://www.unomaha.edu/news/2025/09/new-oma-x-ai-conference-keynote-speakers-breakout-presenters-announced.php), [University of Nebraska Omaha](https://www.unomaha.edu/omaxai/speakers/past-speakers/erin-saxby.php) |
| Jan 22, 2025 | VP Product joins PYMNTS session on generative AI | Cory Mann spoke on what payments and banking need from generative-AI companies. | [PYMNTS.com](https://pymnts.com/events/whats-next-in-payments-memo-to-the-genai-companies-fnbo) |
| Dec 8, 2021 | Upstart AI lending expanded nationwide | Pilot results met or exceeded expectations with a Net Promoter Score of 83; 78% of loans approved instantly; FNBO planned to use the platform for affinity partners. | [FNBO and Upstart (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211208005384/en/First-National-Bank-of-Omaha-Expands-Personal-Loans-Powered-by-Upstart) |
| Oct 21, 2019 | Upstart AI lending pilot nears completion; OCC briefed | Pilot begun in July lent tens of millions of dollars; FICO and debt-to-income kept in the model; OCC and examiners briefed. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/the-banks-warming-to-ai-based-lending) |

## Common questions

### Does FNBO build its own AI models?

Partly. FNBO's data engineering team builds machine-learning models for forecasting and anomaly detection on call-center analytics, using Snowflake's Cortex Code agent to automate development (March 2026). It also runs internal generative-AI tools, including internal chat and knowledge bases, but has not named the model behind them or published a foundation model of its own.

### What internal AI tools do FNBO employees use?

Per vice president of product Cory Mann in January 2025: internal chat and internal knowledge bases for policy and procedure documents, generative AI that categorizes customer feedback for the staff who resolve issues, and generative AI that helps generate code in software development. No usage figures have been published through an official channel.

### Which AI at FNBO is bought from vendors?

The financial-crime agents come from Nasdaq Verafin and are developed on AWS Bedrock; FNBO said in June 2026 they save its 15 investigators and analysts about 50% of their time. Pindrop's Fraud Assist summarizes fraud calls, and Upstart's AI lending platform has powered FNBO personal loans since a 2019 pilot and a 2021 nationwide expansion.

### Who leads AI development at FNBO?

Erin Saxby, vice president of technology data services, leads the technology data teams and spearheads the bank's generative-AI strategy, overseeing both data foundations and AI work. Arun Swarnabadran, director of data engineering, has spoken for the call-center machine-learning work. FNBO has no named chief AI officer.
## Deeper on FNBO

- [How does FNBO use AI for fraud detection and credit decisions?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fnbo/fraud-and-credit-ai)
- [What is FNBO's AI strategy, and who drives it?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fnbo/ai-strategy)
- [What technology platforms and partners does FNBO run on?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fnbo/technology-stack)


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