How is SouthState training its workforce for AI?
SouthState treats AI training as change management, run by an AI Enablement Manager, Walt Wear. Premium Copilot licences grew from 300 at the start of 2026 to more than 1,800, with 95% active use against Microsoft's 85% benchmark and about 200,000 prompts a month, supported by weekly office hours attended by hundreds, an AI Central intranet hub and a crowdsourced prompt library. The second-quarter 2026 deck lists weekly office hours, hands-on workshops and required and optional training, and 'educate all team members on AI' is one of three foundational objectives of its formal AI program. The habit is older: in March 2023 the bank trained 30 bankers on ChatGPT, and Tate came out of a 35-person Spark Innovation group. Management's workforce test is that support staff stay 'relatively flat' as revenue producers grow; Chris Nichols said in May 2025 that 'the threat is not being replaced by AI but with a human that knows AI'. SouthState has not published AI headcount, training hours or AI hiring numbers.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Data as of Oct 16, 2026 · SouthState profile updated Oct 13, 2026 · 12 sources cited on this page · 140 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
What AI training does SouthState give its employees?
Programs and numbers as the bank has described them.
| Item | What it is | Date |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT class | 30 bankers trained on ChatGPT and asked to ideate on products for the enterprise version | March 2023[4] |
| Spark Innovation group | A team of 35 employees from across the bank that designed Tate, red-teamed it, and wrote its use cases and risk list | May 2023[5] |
| Prompt-writing training | The Tate rollout taught that 'prompt writing is a new skill that every banker now needs to learn' and built suggested follow-up prompts into the tool | May 2023[5] |
| AI Enablement Manager | Walt Wear runs Copilot adoption as 'an organizational change management problem' | August 2026[1] |
| Copilot adoption | Premium licences from 300 to 1,800+ in 2026; 95% active use; about 200,000 prompts a month; usage tracked in a Power BI report | August 2026[1] |
| Office hours, workshops, required training | Weekly office hours, hands-on workshops and required and optional training, per the 'AI at SouthState' slide | June 30, 2026[2] |
| AI Central and prompt library | Intranet hub with a recording library and a crowdsourced, categorised prompt library | August 2026[1] |
| Educate all team members | One of three foundational objectives of the formal AI program, with the AI risk framework and an experimentation lab | April 2026[3] |
| AI risk course | An AI Risk Series audio course 'adapted from our own internal training content', offered to community banks through the correspondent division | 2025[8] |
| Board training | Directors' 2025 continuing education included training related to artificial intelligence | March 2026[9] |
What has SouthState said about AI and jobs?
On the first-quarter 2026 call Chief Strategy Officer Stephen Young said that 'out of this AI-driven efficiency, as we increase revenue producers, our support personnel should stay relatively flat'. The bank hired 32 revenue producers in January 2026.[6][10]
Chris Nichols told American Banker in May 2025 that 'no technology has ever taken jobs in the long run' and that 'it's incumbent upon our industries to train, and hire, with AI skills in mind'.[7]
The correspondent division's August 2026 Copilot guide, drawn from 'our own experience and from other banks', says the first 20% of a workforce adopts easily, the next 20% at a moderate pace, and the remaining 40% needs deliberate enablement, often tailored in-person training.[11]
What does the SouthState profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the SouthState AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 13, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 30 dated moves, 20 use cases and 33 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot across the workforce | 1,800-plus premium licences at 95% active use; ~200,000 prompts a month. | In production | [1] |
| AI enablement programme | Office hours, AI Central hub, crowdsourced prompt library; adoption run as change management. | In production | [1] |
| Copilot Studio citizen development | The bank is treating Copilot Studio as a core capability so staff in business and risk functions can build agents under governance; the Q2 deck lists citizen agentic development under experimentation. | Pilot | [1][2] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | [1] |
| 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. | [2] |
| 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. | [3][6] |
| Mar 3, 2026 | 2026 proxy: AI in director training; technologist chairs Risk Committee | Directors received AI-related continuing education in 2025; Martin Davis, a former Southern Company CIO, chairs the Risk Committee, which receives quarterly reports from the CIO and CISO. | [9] |
| Jan 21, 2026 | 32 revenue producers hired | Commercial, mortgage and wealth bankers across Denver, Dallas, Atlanta and other markets. | [10] |
| Jan 14, 2025 | Model testing before approval | Only Copilot and ChatGPT approved; expert-written accuracy and safety tests per use case. | [12] |
Who runs AI training at SouthState?
Walt Wear, the bank's AI Enablement Manager, runs Copilot adoption and describes it as an organisational change-management problem. He discussed the program with Chris Nichols, president of institutional banking, on the bank's Community Bank Podcast in August 2026. The bank has not named a chief AI officer.
How many SouthState employees use Copilot?
The second-quarter 2026 earnings deck, with data as of June 30, 2026, counts 2,500+ premium and 2,200+ active basic Copilot users and 12K+ prompts a day. In August 2026 Walt Wear put the active-use rate of premium licence holders at 95%, against Microsoft's 85% benchmark, and monthly prompts at about 200,000.
Is SouthState cutting jobs because of AI?
No cuts tied to AI have been announced. Management's stated plan is that support headcount stays relatively flat while the bank adds revenue producers, as Chief Strategy Officer Stephen Young said on the first-quarter 2026 call. Walt Wear estimates Copilot time savings at close to 100 full-time equivalents a month.
Does SouthState train other banks on AI?
Yes, through its correspondent division, which serves more than 1,300 financial institutions. It offers an AI Risk Series audio course adapted from SouthState's internal training, publishes AI guidance on its Banker-to-Banker blog, and covers AI on The Community Bank Podcast.
- The Playbook for Enterprise AI Adoption with Walt Wear (Community Bank Podcast)
- SouthState second-quarter 2026 earnings presentation (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.2)
- SouthState first-quarter 2026 earnings presentation (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.2)
- ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo – The Risks and Ethics for a Bank Enterprise Application
- Generative AI – 7 Lessons That Tate Taught Us
- SouthState (SSB) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript
- 'A Pac-Man': AI is on the cusp of eating up bank jobs
- Introduction - AI Risk Series
- SouthState Bank Corporation Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A) for the 2026 annual meeting
- SouthState Accelerates Growth with Strategic Talent Acquisition
- Best Practices in Copilot Adoption in Banking
- 6 things banks look for in gen AI models and companies
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