How is U.S. Bank preparing its workforce for AI?
U.S. Bancorp is training broadly while its headcount drifts down. It employed 75,465 people at the end of 2023 and 68,520 at the end of 2025, per its 10-Ks; it has not tied the decline to AI. Training is the visible program: the 2025 10-K reports an 'AI Essentials Channel' on its Skills Academy to help staff use company-approved AI tools, a new Skills Academy learning platform, and more than 1.7 million hours of training completed in 2025. Chief AI officer Prashant Mehrotra said in 2026 the bank has rolled out persona-based AI training across its 70,000 employees so they understand 'how AI applies to the job', and CIO Dilip Venkatachari said 70% to 75% of engineers were trained on and using new AI tools within three months. Adoption is not automatic: CEO Gunjan Kedia said in May 2026 that 'the workforce likes AI about as much as they liked the return to office mandates after Covid', and that confident users must show others what works. Kedia set the goal in April 2026 of 'becoming an AI-native organization' and said in October that productivity from AI programs helped improve the efficiency ratio. The new board Technology Committee is chaired by Yusuf Mehdi, a Microsoft executive vice president whom the 2026 proxy cites for 'leadership in artificial intelligence development and implementation'. U.S. Bank has not disclosed an AI headcount or any role reductions attributed to AI.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Data as of Oct 31, 2026 · U.S. Bank profile updated Oct 16, 2026 · 16 sources cited on this page · 141 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
How does U.S. Bank train employees to use AI?
| Program or measure | What it is | Scale | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning experience platform and Development Day | A new platform with training on thousands of topics, and the first enterprise-wide Development Day on April 10, 2024 | Thousands of team members watched | April 2024[10] |
| Skills Academy learning platform | A new platform 'providing higher quality learning aligned to critical skills', used for role training and job-family skill development | Enterprise | 2025[2] |
| AI Essentials Channel | Skills Academy channel to help team members use company-approved AI tools in daily work | Enterprise | 2025[2] |
| Training hours | Hours completed through enterprise learning programs | More than 1.7 million | 2025[2] |
| Persona-based AI training | Training tailored to employee profiles on 'how AI applies to the job' and how processes change | Across about 70,000 employees | Described September 2026[3] |
| Engineer AI adoption | Engineers trained on and using new AI tools | 70% to 75% within three months | June 1, 2026[4] |
| Developer tools | Started with GitHub Copilot; now Cognition, Claude Code and others, integrated so as not to add 'more and more screens' | Developers | July 30, 2026[5] |
How has U.S. Bank's headcount changed, and what have leaders said about AI and jobs?
| Date | Who or what | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| December 31, 2023 | 2023 10-K | 75,465 employees globally[1] |
| December 31, 2025 | 2025 10-K | 68,520 employees globally; workforce strategy centered on in-person work in more than 20 corporate hubs[2] |
| November 7, 2025 | Dilip Venkatachari, CIO | On scaling AI: 'the technology is the easy part'; people and process are the harder work[11] |
| April 16, 2026 | Gunjan Kedia, CEO | 'In the past it was automation; going forward, we are focused on becoming an AI-native organization'[7] |
| May 5, 2026 | Gunjan Kedia | 'The workforce likes AI about as much as they liked the return to office mandates after Covid'; confident users need to inspire uptake[6] |
| July 30, 2026 | Prashant Mehrotra, chief AI officer | Time saved by employee tools is not measured 'every single last piece'; customer use cases are measured in conversions and onboarding speed[5] |
| October 15, 2026 | Gunjan Kedia | 'Productivity initiatives, including from our AI programs, helped improve our efficiency ratio'[8] |
Who leads AI talent at U.S. Bank, and what is not disclosed?
Prashant Mehrotra became chief AI officer in mid-2025 after leading AI at Allstate and data engineering at Capital One; Dilip Venkatachari is chief information and technology officer. The bank started AI with a centralized organization and is 'federating this out' to business teams, with reusable components shared across them.[5][4]
At board level, the 2026 proxy describes Yusuf Mehdi, a director since 2018, Microsoft executive vice president and chair of the new Technology Committee, as bringing 'leadership in artificial intelligence development and implementation', and credits investments in 'AI, automation and digital capabilities' with meaningful cost savings in core operations.[9]
Not disclosed: the number of AI specialists, AI training completion rates by role, or whether any part of the fall from 75,465 to 68,520 employees reflects AI rather than other efficiency work.[1][2]
What does the U.S. Bank profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the U.S. Bank AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 16, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 34 dated moves, 18 use cases and 51 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Essentials Channel | Skills Academy training on using company-approved AI tools in daily work. | In production | [2] |
| GenAI code-review assistant and coding agents | A GenAI code-review assistant cuts review time by 75%; engineers moved from GitHub Copilot to a wider set of tools including Cognition and Claude Code, and AI is also used to test more code. | In production | [12][5] |
| Persona-based AI training and use-case governance | Role-specific training for 70,000 employees; a governance body reviews every use case through a common lens and ideas are sorted into growth, cost-saving and unmeasured productivity buckets. | In production | [3][5] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 26, 2026 | Healthcare payments automation push | Senior hires to digitise recordkeeping, benefits, invoicing and payments with AI. | [13] |
| Jun 1, 2026 | American Banker honours Venkatachari and Venturo | Venkatachari: 70%-75% of engineers trained and using AI tools within three months. Venturo: an enterprise platform that is 80% reusable lets teams ship in months. | [4][14] |
| May 14, 2026 | Mehrotra's four E's | 'Evangelize, educate, enable, and execute' — the chief AI officer on scaling AI: 'if not now, when?' | [15] |
| Apr 16, 2026 | Q1 2026 call: 'becoming an AI-native organization' | Kedia sets the cost-structure goal; CFO John Stern sees AI as a way to 'go on offense' in fund services and corporate trust; Elavon's AI-driven Pay Defense wins an MPE 2026 award. | [7][16] |
| Jul 1, 2025 | Prashant Mehrotra becomes Chief AI Officer | Joins from Allstate; earlier director of data engineering at Capital One. | [5] |
How many employees does U.S. Bank have?
68,520 globally at December 31, 2025, per the 2025 10-K, down from 75,465 at the end of 2023. The bank has not attributed the decline to AI; its 10-K describes a workforce strategy built around in-person work at more than 20 corporate hubs, branches and business centers.
How does U.S. Bank train employees on AI?
Through its Skills Academy, which launched an AI Essentials Channel in 2025 for using company-approved AI tools, and persona-based AI training across about 70,000 employees that chief AI officer Prashant Mehrotra described in 2026. Employees completed more than 1.7 million hours of training in 2025 across all enterprise programs. CIO Dilip Venkatachari said 70% to 75% of engineers were trained on and using new AI tools within three months.
Is U.S. Bank cutting jobs because of AI?
It has not said so. Headcount fell from 75,465 to 68,520 between the end of 2023 and the end of 2025, and CEO Gunjan Kedia said in October 2026 that productivity from AI programs helped the efficiency ratio, but the bank has not announced AI-related layoffs or published an estimate of roles affected.
Do U.S. Bank employees like using AI?
Not uniformly, by the CEO's account. Gunjan Kedia told a WSJ event on May 5, 2026 that 'the workforce likes AI about as much as they liked the return to office mandates after Covid', adding that confident users need to show colleagues successful uses. The bank's response is role-specific training and tools integrated into existing workflows.
Is U.S. Bank hiring for AI roles?
Yes. BankingNewsAI's weekly read of U.S. Bank's careers site on October 27, 2026 listed roles including a principal AI engineer for AI acceleration and enterprise enablement, an AI red team lead, an AI technology risk manager, agentic gateway and AI search engineers, and an agentic AI product manager; the current list is on the U.S. Bank profile. Postings change weekly and are not cited as sources.
- U.S. Bancorp Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2023 (human capital)
- U.S. Bancorp Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025
- Benchmarking AI adoption: What U.S. Bank's playbook tells us
- Dilip Venkatachari's development of agentic AI and digital-asset infrastructures is driving use cases
- Beyond token-maxing: How U.S. Bank AI chief navigates costs
- US Bank CEO Says Employees Dislike AI as Much as Return-to-Office Mandates
- US Bancorp (USB) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- U.S. Bancorp (USB) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- U.S. Bancorp 2026 Proxy Statement (DEF 14A)
- Learning and Development works to help team members unlock their potential
- U.S. Bancorp CIO on Scaling AI: 'The Technology Is the Easy Part'
- U.S. Bancorp Annual Report 2025
- U.S. Bank takes a swing at automating health care payments
- #41 Dominic Venturo's 80% reusable enterprise platform transformed the pace of product development
- U.S. Bank Chief AI Officer on Transformation: 'If Not Now, When?'
- U.S. Bancorp first-quarter 2026 earnings call presentation (Form 8-K exhibit)
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