# Wells Fargo: Virtual assistant

Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/virtual-assistant
Last updated: Oct 16, 2026

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

## What is Fargo, Wells Fargo's virtual assistant, and how does it work?

Fargo is the AI virtual assistant in the Wells Fargo Mobile app. Announced on October 24, 2022 as built on Google Cloud's Dialogflow, it went live in March 2023, added Spanish on September 27, 2023, and handled 21.3 million interactions in 2023 and 245.4 million in 2024. On March 26, 2026 Wells Fargo said Fargo had passed 1 billion interactions in less than three years, with more than 3 million Spanish-speaking customers using it over 160 million times. It pays bills, moves money, sends Zelle payments, finds routing numbers, turns cards off and shows spending and subscription insights, a 30-day balance forecast and a 14-day activity forecast. The design keeps personal data away from the model: speech is transcribed on the device, a small language model scrubs personal information, and only then is Google's Gemini Flash 2.0 called to identify intent and entities, CIO Chintan Mehta said in April 2025; 'none' of the bank's APIs pass through the LLM. Fargo launched on PaLM 2 and now uses several models for different tasks. Wells Fargo has not disclosed Fargo's resolution rate or cost savings. ([Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221024005103/en/), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year), [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://businesswire.com/news/home/20230927306717/en/Wells-Fargos-Virtual-Assistant-Fargo-Expands-Capabilities-with-Spanish-Language-Feature), [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), [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260326542274/en/Wells-Fargo-Reaches-Major-Digital-Milestones), [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/fargo/))

## How has Fargo grown since launch?

| Milestone | Detail | Date | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Announced | Fargo to be built on Google Cloud's Dialogflow; at launch it would turn cards on and off, check credit limits, search transactions and hand off to a live agent | October 24, 2022 | [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221024005103/en/) |
| Live to customers | Launched in March; 20 million interactions by January 2024, 2.7 interactions per session | March 2023 | [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year) |
| Spanish | Spanish-language capability, tuned with Spanish-speaking employees from more than a dozen countries | September 27, 2023 | [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://businesswire.com/news/home/20230927306717/en/Wells-Fargos-Virtual-Assistant-Fargo-Expands-Capabilities-with-Spanish-Language-Feature) |
| 2023 volume | 21.3 million interactions, full rollout including Spanish, per the 4Q23 results | December 31, 2023 | [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/assets/pdf/about/investor-relations/earnings/fourth-quarter-2023-financial-results.pdf) |
| 2024 volume | 245.4 million interactions, 'more than doubling its original projections'; 336 million since launch | December 31, 2024 | [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) |
| 1 billion interactions | In less than three years; 33 million mobile active users; 3 million Spanish-speaking users, 160 million interactions | March 26, 2026 | [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260326542274/en/Wells-Fargo-Reaches-Major-Digital-Milestones) |

## Which AI models power Fargo, and how is customer data protected?

Fargo was announced as built on Dialogflow, Google Cloud's conversational AI platform, using its language processing to understand intent; the release said the architecture 'keeps Wells Fargo customer data secure and private'. CIO Chintan Mehta said in January 2024 that it launched on Google's PaLM 2 and now uses multiple LLMs for different tasks because 'you don't need the same large model for all things'. ([Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221024005103/en/), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year))

By April 2025 the pipeline ran like this, per Mehta: speech is transcribed locally, internal systems including a small language model detect and tokenize personal information, and only then is Gemini Flash 2.0 called to extract intent and entities. 'All the computations and detokenization, everything is on our end,' he said. The bank's other AI applications run on its internal Tachyon platform, designed so that no single model or cloud is assumed. ([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), [VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/ai/wells-fargos-google-llm-driven-assistant-may-reach-100-million-interactions-per-year))

Michelle Moore, head of Digital, Data and Artificial Intelligence, called the 1 billion milestone a reflection of 'our disciplined approach to responsibly scaling AI'. Not disclosed: containment or resolution rates, cost per interaction, and how many conversations go to a human. ([Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260326542274/en/Wells-Fargo-Reaches-Major-Digital-Milestones))

## What can customers do with Fargo?

| Capability | What it does | Source | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Payments and transfers | Shows bills due, makes payments and transfers, views Zelle transactions | Wells Fargo product page | [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/fargo/), [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260326542274/en/Wells-Fargo-Reaches-Major-Digital-Milestones) |
| Account servicing | Finds the routing number, turns a card off, shows recent transactions | Wells Fargo product page | [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/fargo/) |
| Forecasts | 30-day balance forecast from recurring transactions; 14-day view of projected and scheduled transactions | Wells Fargo product page | [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/fargo/) |
| Spending insights | Monthly spending by category or merchant; recurring charges and subscriptions across accounts | Wells Fargo product page; 2023 release | [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/fargo/), [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://businesswire.com/news/home/20230927306717/en/Wells-Fargos-Virtual-Assistant-Fargo-Expands-Capabilities-with-Spanish-Language-Feature) |
| Languages | English and Spanish, by voice or text, in the smartphone app only | Wells Fargo product page | [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/fargo/) |

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

| Date | Move | Detail | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sep 29, 2026 | Cyber chief on AI-enabled social engineering | Sarah Gosler, head of Cyber Human Defense, says AI lowers the barrier to cybercrime and 'humans now represent the largest attack surface'; Wells Fargo advises clients to equip staff with AI defences. | [Wells Fargo Stories](https://stories.wf.com/our-impact/ai-cyber-defense-cross-border-payments) |
| Sep 29, 2026 | Ranks 53rd in Fortune's AIQ 75 | Fortune and ServiceNow's expanded 2026 AI-impact ranking of Fortune 500 companies places Wells Fargo 53rd, behind fellow US banks JPMorgan Chase (1st), BNY (15th), Bank of America (19th) and Citigroup (51st). | [Fortune](http://fortune.com/2026/09/29/how-banks-are-using-ai-agents-copilots-roi) |
| Sep 18, 2026 | Ranks second-worst of seven banks on AI-judged reputation | A RepTrak study averaging scores across Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini gives Wells Fargo 22.2 out of 100, ahead of only TD Bank (19.4) and well behind Ally (52.1), Chase (50.3), Truist (42.6), Bank of America (39.6) and Chime (37.3). | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/people-use-ai-to-gauge-banks-reputations-and-its-verdicts-are-harsh) |
| 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) |
| Apr 9, 2026 | Wells Fargo CEO briefed on Anthropic Mythos cyber risk | Bessent and Powell convened bank CEOs at Treasury; Bloomberg, via Reuters, listed the Wells Fargo CEO among those present. Wells Fargo declined to comment. | [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bessent-powell-warn-bank-ceos-about-anthropic-model-risks-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-04-10/) |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Fargo passes 1 billion interactions | Less than three years after launch; 3 million Spanish-speaking customers have used it more than 160 million times. | [Wells Fargo (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260326542274/en/Wells-Fargo-Reaches-Major-Digital-Milestones), [The Motley Fool (Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/wells-fargo-wfc-q1-2026-193034273.html) |
| Dec 31, 2024 | 245 million Fargo interactions in 2024 | 336 million since launch; speech transcribed locally, no personal data sent to the LLM. | [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) |
| Dec 31, 2023 | Fargo fully rolled out: 21.3 million interactions | Includes a Spanish-language capability, per the 4Q23 results. | [Wells Fargo](https://www.wellsfargo.com/assets/pdf/about/investor-relations/earnings/fourth-quarter-2023-financial-results.pdf) |
| 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

### When did Wells Fargo launch Fargo?

Wells Fargo announced Fargo on October 24, 2022 as a virtual assistant powered by Google Cloud AI, and it went live to customers in March 2023, according to CIO Chintan Mehta. A Spanish-language version followed on September 27, 2023. The bank recorded 21.3 million interactions in its first year.

### Does Fargo use generative AI or ChatGPT?

Fargo uses Google models, not ChatGPT. It launched on Google's PaLM 2 and, by April 2025, called Gemini Flash 2.0, but only to identify the customer's intent and the entities involved. Personal data is scrubbed first by Wells Fargo's own systems, including a small language model, and all account actions run through bank APIs that sit outside the model.

### How many people use Fargo?

Wells Fargo reports interactions rather than users: 245.4 million in 2024 and more than 1 billion in total by March 26, 2026. It also said more than 3 million Spanish-speaking customers have used Fargo, more than 160 million times, and that its mobile app had more than 33 million active users.

### Is Fargo available on desktop?

No. Wells Fargo's product page says Fargo is only available on the smartphone versions of the Wells Fargo Mobile app, in English and Spanish, by voice or text. Customers tap the purple Fargo icon in the app's search bar.

### Does Wells Fargo have an AI assistant for employees or advisers?

Yes, separately from Fargo. Employees use Google Agentspace, Gemini Deep Research, NotebookLM and Microsoft 365 Copilot, and wealth advisers have AI Teammate, a chat tool inside the Advisor Gateway desktop, launched on July 15, 2026.
## Deeper on Wells Fargo

- [What is Wells Fargo's AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/ai-strategy)
- [What AI research, patents and partnerships does Wells Fargo have?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/ai-research-patents-partnerships)
- [How does Wells Fargo use AI in wealth management?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/wealth-management-ai)


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