# Wells Fargo: Research, patents and partnerships

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

*Part of the [Wells Fargo AI strategy profile](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo).*

## What AI research, patents and partnerships does Wells Fargo have?

Wells Fargo's AI partnerships center on Google Cloud and Microsoft, chosen as its public clouds in September 2021 (Azure primary, Google Cloud for additional business-critical services). Google Cloud's Dialogflow underpins Fargo (announced October 2022) and Google Agentspace brought agentic AI to employees from August 2025; Microsoft 365 Copilot reached more than 30,000 staff. Model sourcing is deliberately plural: Fargo has run on Google's PaLM 2 and later Gemini Flash 2.0, Meta's Llama serves internal uses and OpenAI models 'can be tapped as needed'. On research, Wells Fargo became the inaugural member of Stanford HAI's Financial Services and AI corporate affiliate program in April 2023, putting more than 4,000 employees through its education series. It joined the Agentic AI Foundation as a Gold member in August 2026. Google Patents lists at least six published AI applications assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. from 2025-2026 filings, and Evident counts 81 AI venture deals by the bank since 2019, the most of any US bank; Wells Fargo Strategic Capital has backed Socure and BigPanda. ([Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005388/en), [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221024005103/en/), [Google Cloud](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/financial-services/wells-fargo-agentic-ai-agentspace-empowering-workers), [Microsoft](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-cloud/blog/2025/11/20/from-legacy-to-frontier-how-100-year-brands-are-leading-ai-innovation/), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/business/wells-fargos-ai-assistant-just-crossed-245-million-interactions-with-zero-humans-in-the-loop-and-zero-pii-to-the-llm), [Stanford HAI](https://hai.stanford.edu/news/wells-fargo-joins-stanford-hai-corporate-affiliate-program), [Agentic AI Foundation (PR Newswire)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agentic-ai-foundation-welcomes-57-new-members-gaining-major-financial-services-players-and-apac-leaders-302850143.html), [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250252445A1/en), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-citi-and-goldman-lead-in-ai-venture-investment), [Finextra](https://finextra.com/newsarticle/36461/citi-and-wells-fargo-invest-in-digital-id-firm-socure/security), [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/17/aiops-startup-bigpanda-raises-series-e-extension-bringing-its-total-capital-to-340m/))

## Who are Wells Fargo's AI and technology partners?

Named partners with the dates the relationship was announced or reported.

| Partner | Type | What it is | Since | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Microsoft Azure | Cloud | Primary public cloud provider under the 2021 digital infrastructure strategy | September 2021 | [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005388/en) |
| Google Cloud | Cloud and AI | Additional business-critical public cloud services (2021); Dialogflow for Fargo (2022); Agentspace, Gemini Deep Research and NotebookLM for all employees (2025) | September 2021 | [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005388/en), [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221024005103/en/), [Google Cloud](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/financial-services/wells-fargo-agentic-ai-agentspace-empowering-workers), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-plans-to-unleash-googles-agentic-ai-bank-wide) |
| Google (models) | Model provider | Fargo launched on PaLM 2; Gemini Flash 2.0 extracts intent and entities, with no personal data sent to the model | 2023; 2025 | [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/business/wells-fargos-ai-assistant-just-crossed-245-million-interactions-with-zero-humans-in-the-loop-and-zero-pii-to-the-llm) |
| Meta Llama, OpenAI | Model providers | Llama 2 and other open-source models for some internal uses; OpenAI models 'can be tapped as needed' | 2024; 2025 | [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/business/wells-fargos-ai-assistant-just-crossed-245-million-interactions-with-zero-humans-in-the-loop-and-zero-pii-to-the-llm) |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Employee AI | More than 30,000 employees since June 2025; 92% active usage | June 2025 | [Microsoft](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-cloud/blog/2025/11/20/from-legacy-to-frontier-how-100-year-brands-are-leading-ai-innovation/) |
| Stanford HAI | Research and education | Inaugural member of the Financial Services and AI Corporate Affiliate Program; more than 4,000 employees in its webinar series | April 2023 | [Stanford HAI](https://hai.stanford.edu/news/wells-fargo-joins-stanford-hai-corporate-affiliate-program), [Wells Fargo Stories](https://stories.wf.com/our-impact/how-wells-fargo-builds-responsible-artificial-intelligence) |
| BlackRock Aladdin Wealth | Wealth technology | Proposal and Portfolio Analytics with the generative-AI 'Auto Commentary' feature in Advisor Gateway | May 2026 | [WealthManagement.com](https://wealthmanagement.com/advisor-support-platforms/wealthstack-roundup-news-from-wells-fargo-advisors-advisor360-smarsh-redblack), [InvestmentNews](https://investmentnews.com/wirehouses/wirehouse-watch-wells-fargo-debuts-ai-powered-advisor-platform/266496) |
| Agentic AI Foundation | Standards body | Gold member of the home of MCP and other agent standards | August 2026 | [Agentic AI Foundation (PR Newswire)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agentic-ai-foundation-welcomes-57-new-members-gaining-major-financial-services-players-and-apac-leaders-302850143.html) |
| BioCatch | Fraud vendor | Behavioral-biometrics fraud software; Wells Fargo signed on in 2025, per American Banker | 2025 | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/what-visas-2-4b-biocatch-deal-means-for-your-bank) |

## Which AI patents has Wells Fargo filed?

Published US applications assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as listed on Google Patents. Applications are not granted rights.

| Number | Title | Status | Date | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| US 2025/0252445 A1 | Fraud assistant large language model | Published application | Filed February 5, 2025 | [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250252445A1/en) |
| US 2025/0284801 A1 | Threat mitigation using artificial intelligence | Published application | Filed May 27, 2025 | [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250284801A1/en) |
| US 2025/0384221 A1 | Compression of models for natural language processing | Published application | Filed August 22, 2025 | [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250384221A1/en) |
| US 2026/0087043 A1 | Model-based personal advisor system | Published application | Filed September 23, 2025 | [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20260087043A1/en) |
| US 2026/0099305 A1 | Universal machine learning pipeline execution | Published application | Published April 9, 2026 | [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20260099305A1/en) |
| US 2026/0119582 A1 | Document set interrogation tool (chatbot over an ad hoc document set) | Published application | Published April 30, 2026 | [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20260119582A1/en) |
| Bridget Engle | Two pending generative-AI patent applications filed by the head of technology | Pending | 2026 | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/2026-the-most-powerful-women-in-banking-11-bridget-engle-wells-fargo) |

## What has Wells Fargo invested in, and what research has it published?

Evident counted 81 AI venture deals by Wells Fargo since 2019, the most of any US bank, as reported by American Banker in April 2026. Named examples through Wells Fargo Strategic Capital include Socure, the machine-learning identity-verification firm, in a $35 million round in August 2020, and BigPanda, which builds AI for IT incident management, in a $20 million Series E extension in August 2022; TechCrunch reported Wells Fargo was also a BigPanda customer. The bank does not publish its AI portfolio or stake sizes. ([American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-citi-and-goldman-lead-in-ai-venture-investment), [Finextra](https://finextra.com/newsarticle/36461/citi-and-wells-fargo-invest-in-digital-id-firm-socure/security), [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/17/aiops-startup-bigpanda-raises-series-e-extension-bringing-its-total-capital-to-340m/))

Wells Fargo has not set up a public AI research lab that publishes papers. Its disclosed research work runs through the Stanford HAI program and through its own platform: CIO Chintan Mehta said in January 2024 that the bank built an AI platform called Tachyon on three presumptions (no single model will win, no single cloud, data will be hard to move) and that it supports techniques such as model and tensor sharding. ([Stanford HAI](https://hai.stanford.edu/news/wells-fargo-joins-stanford-hai-corporate-affiliate-program), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year))

In April 2025 Mehta described a multi-agent project, some agents built on the open-source LangGraph framework, that re-underwrote 15 years of archived loan documents, with a human reviewing the final output. In 2026 the bank joined the Agentic AI Foundation, with Mehta citing interoperability and governance. ([VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/business/wells-fargos-ai-assistant-just-crossed-245-million-interactions-with-zero-humans-in-the-loop-and-zero-pii-to-the-llm), [Agentic AI Foundation (PR Newswire)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agentic-ai-foundation-welcomes-57-new-members-gaining-major-financial-services-players-and-apac-leaders-302850143.html))

## What does the Wells Fargo profile record on this topic?

| Date | Move | Detail | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Oct 1, 2026 | Engle: $10 billion technology budget, nearly 200,000 staff with AI tools | The technology team of 30,000 is expanding cloud-based data-centre capacity for AI work; Engle holds two pending generative-AI patent applications filed in 2026. | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/2026-the-most-powerful-women-in-banking-11-bridget-engle-wells-fargo) |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Joins the Agentic AI Foundation as a Gold member | The neutral home of MCP and other agent standards; CIO Chintan Mehta cites interoperability and governance. | [Agentic AI Foundation (PR Newswire)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agentic-ai-foundation-welcomes-57-new-members-gaining-major-financial-services-players-and-apac-leaders-302850143.html) |
| Aug 3, 2026 | BioCatch customer as Visa buys the vendor | Covering Visa's $2.4 billion deal for BioCatch, American Banker reported that Wells Fargo signed on with the behavioural-biometrics fraud vendor in 2025 (per a January BioCatch release), making it one of three of the four largest US banks running BioCatch software. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/what-visas-2-4b-biocatch-deal-means-for-your-bank) |
| May 27, 2026 | Scharf at Bernstein: AI is both a threat and a benefit to jobs | Names auditing, testing, legal, contracts, patent filings, pitchbooks and credit memos as areas for AI; headcount about 205,000, down from 275,000; $15 billion cut and $9 billion reinvested. | [Banking Dive](https://bankingdive.com/news/wells-fargo-ceo-scharf-ai-employment-banking-jobs/821368) |
| Apr 30, 2026 | Document-interrogation chatbot application published | US 2026/0119582 A1 describes a chatbot workflow over an ad hoc set of documents that searches for relevant passages and generates a response; filed 30 September 2025. | [Google Patents (USPTO)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20260119582A1/en) |
| Apr 20, 2026 | Most active US bank AI venture investor | 81 AI venture deals since 2019. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-citi-and-goldman-lead-in-ai-venture-investment) |
| Jan 1, 2022 | Fargo to be powered by Google Cloud AI | The virtual assistant is built on Google's conversational product. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-plans-to-unleash-googles-agentic-ai-bank-wide), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-hires-aws-exec-to-lead-ai-strategy) |
| Jan 1, 2021 | Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure chosen as cloud partners | The relationship that later carries Fargo and the agent rollout. | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-plans-to-unleash-googles-agentic-ai-bank-wide) |

## Common questions

### Is Wells Fargo partnered with Google or Microsoft for AI?

Both. In September 2021 it named Microsoft Azure its primary public cloud and Google Cloud a provider of additional business-critical services. Google Cloud's AI powers the Fargo assistant (announced October 2022) and the Agentspace rollout to employees (August 2025); Microsoft 365 Copilot has more than 30,000 Wells Fargo users.

### Which AI models does Wells Fargo use?

By the CIO's account, several. Fargo launched on Google's PaLM 2 and by April 2025 used Gemini Flash 2.0 for intent and entity extraction only. Meta's Llama models serve some internal uses, and OpenAI models can be called as needed. Payments head Ather Williams said in May 2026 that 'Everyone has Co-pilot at their desk. Everyone messes around with Claude.'

### What is Wells Fargo's relationship with Stanford HAI?

Wells Fargo was announced on April 4, 2023 as the inaugural member of Stanford HAI's Financial Services and AI Corporate Affiliate Program. As a founding member it took part in a tailored professional education program that engaged more than 4,000 employees through a webinar series; the bank's 2026 responsible-AI article cites the program as part of how it promotes ethical AI.

### How many AI patents does Wells Fargo have?

This page lists six published US applications assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. from 2025 and 2026 filings: a fraud-assistant LLM, AI threat mitigation, NLP model compression, a model-based personal advisor, ML pipeline execution and a document-interrogation chatbot. Head of technology Bridget Engle also has two pending generative-AI applications. A total AI patent count has not been published.

### Does Wells Fargo invest in AI startups?

Yes. Evident counted 81 AI venture deals since 2019, the most of any US bank (April 2026). Through Wells Fargo Strategic Capital it joined Socure's $35 million round in 2020 and BigPanda's Series E extension in 2022. The bank does not publish a list of AI holdings or their size.
## Deeper on Wells Fargo

- [What is Wells Fargo's AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/ai-strategy)
- [What is Fargo, Wells Fargo's virtual assistant, and how does it work?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/virtual-assistant)
- [How does Wells Fargo use AI in wealth management?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/wealth-management-ai)


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