# SouthState Bank: Research, patents and partnerships

Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/southstate/ai-research-patents-partnerships
Last updated: Oct 16, 2026

*Part of the [SouthState Bank AI strategy profile](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/southstate).*

## What AI partnerships and patents does SouthState have?

SouthState's AI partners are Microsoft, OpenAI and Fiserv, and it holds no AI patents that could be found. Its first generative-AI build, the Tate employee assistant rolled out in May 2023, ran in the bank's Azure environment on Azure OpenAI, Cognitive Search and Azure App Services, replacing search on a ServiceNow intranet. As of January 2025 Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI's ChatGPT were the only two approved employee gen-AI tools, and by June 30, 2026 the bank had 2,500+ premium Copilot users. In May 2026 Fiserv named SouthState among the institutions co-developing agents for agentOS, a platform built with OpenAI and AWS on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, with deployments beginning that summer. Management also reports an internally developed small language model used in credit operations, fraud management and call-centre support. Outside AI, it is a design partner and investor in the Cari tokenized-deposit network ($32.5 million first tranche, September 2026). SouthState has announced no university AI research funding and no AI venture investments. ([SouthState Correspondent Division](https://southstatecorrespondent.com/banker-to-banker/innovation/generative-ai-7-lessons-that-tate-taught-us/), [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/6-things-banks-look-for-in-gen-ai-models-and-companies), [SouthState Bank Corporation (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764038/000110465926086278/ssb-20260723xex99d2.htm), [Investing.com](https://investing.com/news/assorted/fiserv-launches-agentos-operating-system-for-banking-ai-agents-432SI-4687930), [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/fiserv-has-co-created-ai-agents-with-six-banks-and-openai), [Investing.com](https://investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-southstate-tops-q2-2026-profit-estimates-as-shares-rise-93CH-4812058), [Cari via Business Wire (Morningstar)](https://morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20260902910423/cari-raises-over-30-million-in-first-tranche-of-initial-funding-round-backed-entirely-by-banks))

## Who are SouthState's AI partners?

Named technology partners and in-house builds, with what each does and when it was disclosed.

| Partner or build | Type | What it is | Date | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Microsoft Azure OpenAI (Tate) | Cloud AI service | Tate built in the bank's Azure environment on Azure OpenAI, Cognitive Search and Azure App Services; about $25k to build | May 2023 | [SouthState Correspondent Division](https://southstatecorrespondent.com/banker-to-banker/innovation/generative-ai-7-lessons-that-tate-taught-us/) |
| ServiceNow | Intranet platform | The employee intranet Tate was built to search faster: seven minutes per look-up cut to under 32 seconds | May 2023 | [SouthState Correspondent Division](https://southstatecorrespondent.com/banker-to-banker/innovation/generative-ai-7-lessons-that-tate-taught-us/) |
| OpenAI ChatGPT | Model provider | Enterprise ChatGPT trained only on bank documents (2023); one of two approved employee gen-AI tools (2025) | 2023; January 2025 | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/its-worth-all-the-hype-southstate-bank-deploys-chatgpt-like-tech), [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/6-things-banks-look-for-in-gen-ai-models-and-companies) |
| Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio | Productivity AI | 2,500+ premium and 2,200+ active basic users; Copilot Studio treated as a core capability for citizen-built agents | June-August 2026 | [SouthState Bank Corporation (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764038/000110465926086278/ssb-20260723xex99d2.htm), [SouthState Correspondent Division](https://southstatecorrespondent.com/podcast/the-playbook-for-enterprise-ai-adoption-with-walt-wear) |
| Fiserv agentOS | Agent platform | Co-developing agents with Fiserv; agentOS runs on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore with OpenAI and AWS as collaborators; wide availability expected by August 2026 | May 14, 2026 | [Investing.com](https://investing.com/news/assorted/fiserv-launches-agentos-operating-system-for-banking-ai-agents-432SI-4687930), [Fiserv (investor relations)](https://investors.fiserv.com/news-releases/news-release-details/fiserv-launches-agentos-operating-system-agentic-ai-banking), [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/fiserv-has-co-created-ai-agents-with-six-banks-and-openai) |
| Internal small language model | In-house build | Used in credit operations, fraud management and call-centre support | July 24, 2026 | [Investing.com](https://investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-southstate-tops-q2-2026-profit-estimates-as-shares-rise-93CH-4812058), [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/southstate-bank-q2-earnings-call-170351838.html) |
| Vendor-embedded AI | Software providers | AI tools from the bank's major software providers deployed at department level; many embed AI in products it already uses | April 24, 2026 | [The Motley Fool (Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/southstate-ssb-q1-2026-earnings-143200598.html) |
| Cari Network | Design partner and investor (digital assets) | Bank-governed tokenized-deposit network; SouthState among six banks in the $32.5 million first tranche; Nichols describes a 'dual token strategy' of deposit tokens and stablecoins | June-September 2026 | [Cari via Business Wire (Morningstar)](https://morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20260902910423/cari-raises-over-30-million-in-first-tranche-of-initial-funding-round-backed-entirely-by-banks), [Finovate](https://finovate.com/chris-nichols-on-transforming-payments-with-stablecoins-and-tokenized-deposits) |

## Does SouthState hold AI patents or fund AI research?

No SouthState patent or published application on AI was found, and its filings and announcements describe none. The bank's 2023 ethics post argued that bankers who materially change AI-generated work make it 'substantially their own both ethically and under the rules of patentable intellectual property', but no filing followed. ([SouthState Bank Corporation (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764038/000110465926017884/ssb-20251231x10k.htm), [SouthState Correspondent Division](https://southstatecorrespondent.com/banker-to-banker/innovation/chatgpt-3-5-turbo-the-risks-and-ethics-for-a-bank-enterprise-application))

SouthState has announced no university AI partnership or research lab. Its outward-facing AI work is education: the correspondent division's AI Risk Series course, adapted from internal training, and Chris Nichols's FinovateSpring 2026 keynote on agentic commerce and tokenised money. ([SouthState Correspondent Division](https://southstatecorrespondent.com/ai-video-course-intro), [Finovate](https://finovate.com/how-tokenization-ai-and-banks-can-drive-the-future-of-commerce), [Finovate](https://finovate.com/chris-nichols-on-transforming-payments-with-stablecoins-and-tokenized-deposits))

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

| Date | Move | Detail | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sep 14, 2026 | Trust and estate document tool acquired | A tool that summarises trust and estate documents, cutting preparation time from more than 10 hours, per trade-press reporting on bank wealth units. | [ABA Banking Journal](https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2026/09/banks-wealth-units-pursue-ai-carefully/) |
| Sep 2, 2026 | SouthState invests in Cari first tranche | All six design-partner banks, SouthState among them, back Cari's $32.5 million round; the network is not yet in production. | [Cari via Business Wire (Morningstar)](https://morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20260902910423/cari-raises-over-30-million-in-first-tranche-of-initial-funding-round-backed-entirely-by-banks) |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Copilot adoption at 95% | Licences from 300 to 1,800-plus; ~200,000 prompts a month; office hours, AI Central and a prompt library. | [SouthState Correspondent Division](https://southstatecorrespondent.com/podcast/the-playbook-for-enterprise-ai-adoption-with-walt-wear) |
| Jul 31, 2026 | Q2 2026 10-Q repeats the AI risk language | Forward-looking risks include technology change from AI and errors, omissions, unfair treatment or fraud from AI tools used by the bank and its vendors. | [SouthState Bank Corporation (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764038/000110465926089026/ssb-20260630x10q.htm) |
| Jul 24, 2026 | Q2 2026 call: an in-house small language model | Management reports AI use in credit operations, fraud management and call-centre support, including through an internally developed small language model. | [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/southstate-bank-q2-earnings-call-170351838.html) |
| Jul 23, 2026 | Q2 2026 deck: an 'AI at SouthState' slide | 2,500+ premium Copilot users, 12K+ prompts a day, a GenAI Knowledge Assistant at 1.1K+ questions a day, ~90% of credit spreads by AI, 80% of monthly code AI-assisted, AI in call-centre support and fraud detection. | [SouthState Bank Corporation (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764038/000110465926086278/ssb-20260723xex99d2.htm) |
| Jul 2, 2026 | Design Partner Bank in the Cari tokenized-deposit pilot | Chief Strategy Officer Steve Young says SouthState will use the Cari Network to connect its 1,300-plus correspondent institutions to real-time settlement. | [Cari via Business Wire (Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/cari-joins-american-bankers-association-120000507.html) |
| May 14, 2026 | Co-developing agents on Fiserv's agentOS | Alongside City National, Bank OZK and Salem Five; deployments from summer 2026. | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/fiserv-has-co-created-ai-agents-with-six-banks-and-openai), [GlobeNewswire via FT Markets](https://markets-data-api-proxy.ft.com/data/announce/detail?dockey=1330-9720168en-4LJN4EPGO0K6J4L2SCCECO1O5B) |
| Apr 23, 2026 | Q1 2026 deck and call: AI one of four priorities | AI capabilities in production within 77 platforms; automated credit spreading up 57% and Copilot usage up 42% since January; the CEO cites an AI tool loading 1,000 factoring invoices in two and a half minutes. | [SouthState Bank Corporation (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764038/000110465926047690/ssb-20260423xex99d2.htm), [The Motley Fool (Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/southstate-ssb-q1-2026-earnings-143200598.html) |
| Feb 20, 2026 | 2025 10-K: a formal AI Strategy, and AI as a risk factor | The bank says it has adopted a formal AI Strategy, plans to adopt AI 'internally and from vendors' with controls for accuracy and bias, and flags errors, unfair treatment and fraud risks from its own and vendors' AI. | [SouthState Bank Corporation (SEC filings)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764038/000110465926017884/ssb-20251231x10k.htm) |
| Jan 14, 2025 | Model testing before approval | Only Copilot and ChatGPT approved; expert-written accuracy and safety tests per use case. | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/6-things-banks-look-for-in-gen-ai-models-and-companies) |
| Jun 20, 2023 | Enterprise ChatGPT deployed on bank documents | Nichols, then director of capital markets, says the tool is trained only on bank documents, uses no customer data, and is expected to reach about 2,000 of 5,000 employees; he reports a five to eight times productivity gain on policy look-ups. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/its-worth-all-the-hype-southstate-bank-deploys-chatgpt-like-tech) |

## Common questions

### Does SouthState have AI patents?

None found. No SouthState patent or published patent application on artificial intelligence appears in its SEC filings or announcements, and none was found under its entity names. The bank's AI work has been deployment of vendor models and an internally developed small language model rather than patented research.

### Which AI model providers does SouthState use?

OpenAI and Microsoft. Its 2023 Tate assistant ran on Azure OpenAI in the bank's own Azure environment; ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot were the only two approved employee gen-AI tools as of January 2025. The Fiserv agentOS platform it is co-developing agents on uses OpenAI models through Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. Management also reports an in-house small language model.

### What is SouthState building with Fiserv?

SouthState is one of the institutions Fiserv named on May 14, 2026 as co-developing additional agents for agentOS, Fiserv's operating system for banking AI agents, with deployments beginning in summer 2026. The platform's first Fiserv-built agents cover commercial loan onboarding, operational reporting, deposit intelligence and AML triage; SouthState has not said which agents it is building.

### Does SouthState invest in fintech or AI companies?

Its disclosed investment is in Cari, a bank-governed tokenized-deposit network, where SouthState is one of six design-partner banks in a $32.5 million first tranche announced September 2, 2026; its share is undisclosed. Chris Nichols supports fintech investing for the bank, but no AI company stake has been announced.
## Deeper on SouthState

- [What is SouthState's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/southstate/ai-strategy)
- [How does SouthState govern and test its AI?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/southstate/responsible-ai)
- [How is SouthState training its workforce for AI?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/southstate/ai-workforce)


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