The regional that finished a decade-long core replacement first — 56% of staff on generative AI, a Gemini-based enterprise platform, and a deliberate refusal to put autonomous AI in front of customers.
How is Zions using AI?
Zions is the rare regional bank whose AI story starts with a finished core. It completed a decade-plus replacement of its loan and deposit systems in 2024, and executives say that single data model is what lets it move on AI and digital assets at all. By September 2025, 56% of employees were using generative AI for contract review, relationship-review preparation, credit presentations and sorting customer emails, trained through an internal peer-coaching programme called Genovate, and the bank said products relying on the core now ship 20% faster and technology availability incidents had fallen by half. In March 2026 the executive who led that work, chief technology and operations officer Jennifer Smith, left; her role was split between Margaret Mayer, a Capital One and Discover veteran who became CIO and is building an enterprise AI platform on Google Gemini, and Ken Collins, now chief transformation and operations officer, who describes AI processing unstructured customer, internal and supplier documents to speed account opening, onboarding and loan origination. The stance is explicitly cautious: management says it is in the early stages and has 'deliberately avoided deploying fully autonomous AI in client-facing or critical decision-making processes', with fraud detection among the targeted workflows and the CEO's example of 330,000 address-change emails a year as automation candidates. Headcount has fallen from about 10,300 in 2019 to under 9,200 while the efficiency ratio improved to 62.6% in 2025. The same period brought a $50 million charge on two fraudulent California loans that briefly rattled regional-bank stocks in October 2025, a new Zions Bank CEO from Wells Fargo, and plans to trial tokenised deposits and stablecoins in an innovation lab with the core vendor's Quartz software. On the earnings calls since, management has filled in the list: AI has long been used for fraud detection, client authentication, product recommendations and financial-statement spreading; the bank moved in early 2026 from an exploratory phase to 'a small couple of handfuls' of end-to-end automation projects; the CEO cites appraisal, document and contract review and AI-assisted credit review; and in July 2026 management framed AI as a long-term lever against outsourcing costs. The 2025 10-K says the bank is in the early stages, has no fully autonomous AI in critical decisions or client-facing activities, and governs AI through a Data and AI Governance Committee.
Lead bank
Zions Bancorporation, N.A.
Assets (lead bank, Jun 30, 2026)
$89 billion
Charter
National bank (OCC); the bank is the holding company
Headquarters
Salt Lake City, UT
Flagship platform
A modern core plus a Gemini-based enterprise AI platform
AI leadership
Harris Simmons · Scott McLean · Margaret Mayer · Ken Collins · Jennifer Smith · Nate Callister · Chris Kyriakakis · Ryan Richards · Kristiane Koontz · Aakash Tuli · Mike Pell
- On the calls (Jan–Jul 2026): AI already runs fraud detection, client authentication, product recommendations and financial-statement spreading; a handful of end-to-end automation projects replaced a year and a half of exploration; the CEO names appraisal, document and contract review and AI-assisted credit review.
- Governance on the record: the 2025 10-K confirms no fully autonomous AI in critical or client-facing decisions, human review of all final actions, and a Data and AI Governance Committee that requires AI processes to be explainable and auditable.
- Core first: an 11-year loan-and-deposit core replacement finished in 2024, described as the first modern integrated core among larger US banks; 'digital at the core' is management's stated AI advantage.
- Adoption: 56% of the workforce on generative AI by September 2025 (contracts, relationship reviews, credit presentations, email triage), trained through the Genovate peer-coaching programme; core-dependent products ship 20% faster.
- Platform: an enterprise AI platform on Google Gemini under new CIO Margaret Mayer; AI already processes unstructured documents for onboarding and loan origination and supports fraud detection.
- Deliberate caution: no fully autonomous AI in client-facing or critical decisions; targeted workflows first; 330,000 annual address-change emails cited as an automation target.
- Leadership change: CTO/COO Jennifer Smith left in March 2026; Mayer (CIO) and Ken Collins (chief transformation and operations officer) co-run technology and operations; Nate Callister became Zions Bank CEO in January 2026.
- Efficiency and risk: headcount down from ~10,300 (2019) to under 9,200, efficiency ratio 62.6% in 2025; a $50 million loss on two fraudulent loans in October 2025; tokenised-deposit and stablecoin trials planned for 2026.
- The core project is called FutureCore and runs on Tata Consultancy Services' BaNCS platform: chosen in 2013, three phases (consumer loans 2017, commercial and construction loans 2019, deposits July 2024), about three times longer than planned, and about 500 deposit products cut to about 100.
- Simmons credits the data clean-up rather than the platform: 'We had to, fundamentally, clean house before we moved into a new house' (Barclays conference, 10 September 2025).
- AML and operations: on the July 2025 call McLean said Zions uses AI on false positives in the wire room and in AML/BSA alerts, and on the 21,000 W-9 forms and signature cards it processes a year; about 2% of the expense base is removed annually through continuous improvement.
- Headcount and outsourcing: about 9,190 staff at end-2025 against a 2019 peak near 10,300, with 'well less than 9,000' expected a year later; offshore share of staff to rise from about 3% to about 10% by end-2026 (McLean, RBC, March 2026).
- Vendors named in public: nCino for commercial and small-business loan origination (April 2025), Snapdocs for AI funding QC in mortgage closings (October 2024), Zest AI for lending decisions (disclosed by the vendor, August 2026) and TCS for the core and its Quartz tokenised-deposit software. Zions has no named chief AI officer, and no AI patent assigned to it surfaced in Google Patents searches in October 2026.
What is A modern core plus a Gemini-based enterprise AI platform?
Zions completed an 11-year replacement of its loan and deposit cores in 2024, which the bank calls the first modern integrated deposit-and-loan core among larger US banks; its president says being 'digital at the core' with all loans and deposits on one data model is 'a massive advantage'. On that base, 56% of the workforce used generative AI by September 2025 for contract review, relationship-review prep, credit presentations and email triage, supported by Genovate, a peer-coaching training programme, and new products relying on the core ship 20% faster. The new CIO, Margaret Mayer, is building an enterprise AI platform on Google Gemini; the bank uses AI to process unstructured documents for onboarding and loan origination and for fraud detection, and says it has deliberately avoided fully autonomous AI in client-facing or critical decisions.[1][2][3]
What AI partnerships and patents does Zions have?
Zions names few AI partners. Google Gemini underpins its enterprise AI platform, per its CIO; Tata Consultancy Services supplies the BaNCS core and the Quartz tokenised-deposit software; nCino supplies loan origination; Snapdocs supplies AI funding quality control in mortgage closings; and Zest AI says Zions Bank selected it in the second quarter of 2026, which the bank has not confirmed. No AI patent or published application assigned to Zions surfaced in Google Patents searches on 13 October 2026, and the bank has not disclosed a frontier-model lab agreement, a GPU purchase or an AI capex figure.[2][13][17][14][11][12]
| Item | What it is | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Gemini | Model family underneath the enterprise AI platform the CIO says Zions is building | Rolling out | 2026-03-10[2] |
| Tata Consultancy Services, BaNCS | Loan and deposit core (FutureCore); the data base for the bank's AI work | In production | 2024-08-21[13][16] |
| TCS Quartz | Tokenised-deposit and stablecoin software tied to the core, moving into the innovation lab | Announced | 2026-03-10[17][2] |
| nCino | Lending platform with Banking Advisor, Commercial Pricing, and Profitability and Analysis for commercial and small-business origination | Announced | 2025-04-15[14] |
| Snapdocs | AI Funding Quality Control for mortgage closings; 98% fewer pages reviewed by hand | In production | 2024-10-03[11] |
| Zest AI | AI lending-decision technology; selection disclosed by the vendor, scope not stated | Announced | 2026-08-05[12] |
| Managed-services and offshore providers (unnamed) | Outsourcing to lift the offshore share from about 3% to about 10% of staff by end-2026 | In production | 2026-03-10[17] |
What has Zions done on AI, and when?
- Aug 6, 2026
Q2 2026 10-Q lists AI among emerging-technology risks[18][19]
The quarterly report names tokenised deposits, stablecoins, blockchain and AI as technologies whose adoption brings demand and risk; the Q1 10-Q (7 May) used the wording 'positive and disruptive impacts' and added quantum computing. Neither quarterly report describes a specific AI programme; the detail sits in the 2025 10-K.
- Aug 5, 2026
Zest AI says Zions Bank selected it for lending decisions[12]
Zest AI's first-half 2026 release lists Zions Bank among lenders that selected Zest AI in the second quarter to strengthen their lending decisions; disclosed by the vendor, not the bank.
- Jul 20, 2026
Q2 2026 call: AI as a lever against outsourcing costs[10]
Technology costs stay elevated on vendor price increases and software maintenance; management sees AI as a potential long-term lever to reduce outsourcing expenses.
- Apr 20, 2026
Q1 2026 call: CEO on AI use cases and the agentic-AI threat[9]
Appraisal, document and contract review, and AI in credit review to widen the population of deals examined; clean data from the core replacement is the advantage; concerns about agentic AI and deposit margins 'get overplayed'.
- Mar 23, 2026
Agrees to buy Basis Multifamily's agency lending business[23]
A bolt-on in multifamily agency lending.
- Mar 10, 2026
RBC conference: AI used for 40 years, offshore share to 10%[17]
McLean says AI is in fraud work, credit presentations and client authentication and is accelerating; headcount was about 9,190 at year-end 2025 and should be well under 9,000 a year later; offshore staff rise from about 3% to about 10% by end-2026; TCS Quartz due in the innovation lab within 30 to 60 days.
- Mar 10, 2026
Gemini platform, document AI, and 'no autonomous AI' in client decisions[2]
The new leadership on AI governance, unstructured-document processing and a measured stance; stablecoin trials planned.
- Mar 3, 2026
Jennifer Smith departs; technology leadership split[3]
Margaret Mayer becomes CIO, Ken Collins adds operations.
- Feb 24, 2026
2025 10-K: early-stage AI, human review, a Data and AI Governance Committee[7]
No fully autonomous AI in critical decisions or client-facing activities; risk factor covers hallucinations, bias, confidential-data disclosure and AI-enabled fraud.
- Jan 20, 2026
Q4 2025 call: from exploration to a handful of AI projects[8]
The president lists AI already in use (fraud detection, client authentication, product recommendations, financial-statement spreading, document processing), about $40 million of savings initiatives in the expense plan, and headcount below 9,300 from about 10,300 in 2019.
- Dec 22, 2025
Wells Fargo alumnus named Zions Bank CEO[4]
Nate Callister succeeds Paul Burdiss from 1 January 2026.
- Oct 20, 2025
Third-quarter profit rises despite the charge[6]
Net income $221 million; remaining charge-offs 'very benign'.
- Oct 16, 2025
- Sep 24, 2025
56% of staff on generative AI[1]
Genovate peer coaching; copilots for bankers and fraud-detection tools under construction; products 20% faster.
- Sep 12, 2025
CEO scans for acquisitions[5]
Simmons signals interest in bank deals as consolidation picks up.
- Sep 10, 2025
Barclays conference: AI projects in credit examination and treasury operations[16]
Simmons names credit examination and treasury-management operations, expects headcount to fall 2% to 3% a year, calls the TCS BaNCS project FutureCore and says it forced a data clean-up.
- Jul 21, 2025
Q2 2025 call: AI in AML alerts, wire-room false positives and W-9 processing[15]
McLean says about 2% of the expense base is removed each year through continuous improvement, that AI handles the 21,000 W-9 forms and signature cards a year, cuts false positives in the wire room and AML/BSA, and supports loan spreading, credit presentations and loan reviews.
- Apr 15, 2025
nCino chosen for lending origination[14]
Zions selects the nCino platform for commercial and small-business origination, using Banking Advisor, Commercial Pricing, and Profitability and Analysis; McLean frames the aim as faster answers to customers.
- Dec 31, 2024
Core replacement complete, gen AI integrated[1]
The multi-year overhaul of loan and deposit cores finishes with generative AI built in.
- Oct 3, 2024
AI funding QC in mortgage closings (Snapdocs)[11]
An early adopter of Snapdocs' AI Funding Quality Control; pages needing manual review fell 98%.
- Aug 21, 2024
Core replacement closes on TCS BaNCS[13]
American Banker: selected in 2013, three phases (consumer loans 2017, commercial and construction loans 2019, deposits July 2024), about three times longer than planned; about 500 deposit products cut to about 100. Simmons says real-time processing should help catch fraud faster, and Zions plans to go deeper into AI and generative AI.
Where does Zions use AI today?
| System | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generative AI for bankers (56% adoption)[1] | Contract review, relationship-review prep, credit presentations, email triage. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Unstructured-document processing for onboarding and origination[2] | AI reads customer, internal and supplier documents to find what is missing. | In production | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| AI in targeted fraud-detection workflows[2] | Named by management as an early targeted use. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Enterprise AI platform on Google Gemini[2] | A single platform with governance, policies and standards for enterprise use. | Rolling out | Generative & agentic AI |
| AI in credit review, appraisal review and financial-statement spreading[9][8] | AI widens the population of deals the credit-review function examines; people review what the tools flag. | In production | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| AI for client authentication[8] | Named alongside fraud detection and product recommendations as long-standing AI uses. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Zest AI for lending decisions[12] | Zest AI reports that Zions Bank selected its AI lending technology in the second quarter of 2026 to strengthen lending decisions; scope and products not disclosed by the bank. | Announced | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| Snapdocs AI Funding QC in mortgage closings[11] | Automated funding and post-closing quality-control review; 98% fewer pages reviewed by hand. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
| AI risk-factor disclosure and Data and AI Governance Committee[7] | Human oversight of all final actions; bias, transparency and privacy reviews of models; monitoring of third-party AI; explainable and auditable AI processes. | In production | Model risk management |
| Automation of service emails[2] | 330,000 annual address-change and similar emails targeted for AI handling. | Announced | Customer-facing chatbots |
| AI on wire-room and AML/BSA false positives[15] | McLean (July 2025): AI is used actively to reduce false positives in the wire room and in AML/BSA alert review, freeing staff for analysis. | In production | AML / KYC |
| AI processing of W-9 forms and signature cards[15] | About 21,000 W-9 forms and signature cards a year; management reports 'great benefit' from AI in this account-document work. | In production | AML / KYC |
| nCino platform for commercial and small-business origination[14] | nCino tools including Banking Advisor, Commercial Pricing, and Profitability and Analysis to speed end-to-end lending; the bank has not published AI-specific results. | Announced | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| AI in credit examination and treasury-management operations[16][9] | Simmons names both as areas with AI projects expected to have a major impact over three to four years. | Rolling out | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| AI detection tools for fraud and security issues[1] | American Banker (September 2025): the bank is building advanced detection tools to spot fraud and security issues, alongside banker copilots and database assistants. | Rolling out | Cybersecurity |
| Offshore and managed-services expansion beside automation[17] | Offshore staff from about 3% to about 10% of the workforce by end-2026; managed-services partners spin up technology expertise in about 60 days against 90 days to 6 months to hire. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
Use-case links open the tracker's rules-by-use-case matrix: which documents govern each system type.
Which AI vendors and fintechs does Zions work with?
| Company | What Zions uses it for | Status | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zest AI | AI lending decisions | Selected | Credit decisioning |
| Snapdocs | Hybrid digital mortgage closings across the Zions network of banks, plus early adoption of Snapdocs' AI Funding Quality Control, which cut pages needing manual review by 98% (Zions-provided data, per Snapdocs). | In production | Document AI |
| Gemini Enterprise (Google Cloud) | Building an enterprise-wide AI platform using Google Gemini, per the bank's new technology leadership. | Rolling out | Enterprise AI assistants |
| nCino | Banking Advisor, Commercial Pricing, and Profitability and Analysis for commercial and small-business lending origination | Announced | Banking platforms |
Each vendor and fintech page cites the source for the relationship, and vendor pages list products, pricing and other bank customers. Compare AI tools for banks by category, or read the fintech and neobank AI dossiers.
What has Zions disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Workforce using generative AI | 56%[1] | Sep 24, 2025 |
| Speed-up for products relying on the new core | 20% faster[1] | Sep 24, 2025 |
| Technology availability incidents | down 50%[1] | Sep 24, 2025 |
| Headcount | < 9,200, from ≈ 10,300 in 2019[2] | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Efficiency ratio, 2025 | 62.6% (64.2% in 2024)[2] | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Fraud-related loan loss, Q3 2025 | $50 million[6] | Oct 20, 2025 |
| Savings initiatives in the 2026 expense outlook | ≈ $40 million (AI, process change, new technology and outsourcing)[8] | Jan 20, 2026 |
| Productivity per dollar of real assets since 2008 | ≈ +25%, with headcount down 20% (CEO; 'AI is becoming a part of that')[9] | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Mortgage closing pages needing manual review after AI funding QC | −98%[11] | Oct 3, 2024 |
| Expense base removed each year through continuous improvement, including AI | ≈ 2%[15] | Jul 21, 2025 |
| W-9 forms and signature cards processed a year (AI-assisted) | ≈ 21,000[15] | Jul 21, 2025 |
| Headcount at end-2025 and expectation for end-2026 | ≈ 9,190 now; 'well less than 9,000' a year later (2019 peak ≈ 10,300)[17] | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Offshore share of workforce | ≈ 3% (PwC peer survey, about three years earlier) to ≈ 10% by end-2026; peers 10% to 20%[17] | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Planned annual headcount reduction | 2% to 3% a year for at least a couple of years (about 3% in 2025)[16] | Sep 10, 2025 |
| Deposit products after the core replacement | ≈ 100, from ≈ 500[13] | Aug 21, 2024 |
| Reduction in closing-document errors from hybrid digital closings | −80%; 75% hybrid-closing adoption after one month[11] | Oct 3, 2024 |
“We're using it for things like appraisal review all kinds of document review, contract review, we're using it in our credit exam or credit review function to expand the population of deals that we're looking at”[9]
Harris Simmons · Chairman and CEO · Apr 20, 2026
“We've been using AI for a long time. For things like fraud detection, client authentication, product recommendations, financial statement spreading, some unstructured document processing, etcetera.”[8]
Scott McLean · President and Chief Operating Officer · Jan 20, 2026
“If you want to survive in a digital world, you have to be digital at the core, okay? And the fact that we have all of our loans and deposits on one data model sounds kind of boring, but it's a big deal.”[2]
Scott McLean · President and Chief Operating Officer · Mar 10, 2026
“AI is a critical enabler for us, and we have been putting in the governance, the policies, the standards, for AI, for us to be able to leverage it throughout the enterprise.”[2]
Margaret Mayer · Chief Information Officer · Mar 10, 2026
“we've been using AI for 40 years like the rest of the industry. I mean, it's in our fraud work, it's in how we prepare credit presentations, it's in client authentication.”[17]
Scott McLean · President and Chief Operating Officer · Mar 10, 2026
“we're using AI actively there both in the false positives in our wire room and also in AML BSA.”[15]
Scott McLean · President and Chief Operating Officer · Jul 21, 2025
“We had to, fundamentally, clean house before we moved into a new house.”[16]
Harris Simmons · Chairman and CEO · Sep 10, 2025
“I think everybody is trying to figure out how to use AI to produce efficiencies. We've got a variety of projects in the works, which I really believe will have a major impact over the next three or four years.”[16]
Harris Simmons · Chairman and CEO · Sep 10, 2025
“The adoption curve for generative AI is steeper than that of previous transformative technologies, meaning we'll have far less time for the labor market and educational systems to adapt.”[1]
Jennifer Smith · Chief Technology and Operations Officer · Sep 24, 2025
Who runs AI at Zions?
Harris SimmonsLinkedIn ↗
Margaret MayerLinkedIn ↗
Chief Information Officer (from March 2026; Chief Technology Officer before that; ex-Discover, Capital One); responsible for data analytics, software engineering, enterprise architecture, data engineering and infrastructure[3][2][20]
Ken CollinsLinkedIn ↗
Chief Transformation and Operations Officer; his team runs large enterprise programmes and is the centre of excellence for process improvement and automation[3][2][20]
Jennifer SmithLinkedIn ↗
Former Chief Technology and Operations Officer (2015–March 2026); led the core replacement and gen-AI rollout[1][3]
Nate CallisterLinkedIn ↗
CEO, Zions Bank (from January 2026, ex-Wells Fargo)[4]
Chris Kyriakakis
EVP and Chief Risk Officer; former Chief Audit Executive; earlier head of technology, data and operational risk at Capital One[20]
Ryan Richards
Chief Financial Officer; presents the AI, outsourcing and process savings in the expense outlook on the earnings calls[20][8][10]
Kristiane Koontz
EVP, treasury management and payments; led the core replacement day to day and chaired the ABA Core Platforms Committee; expects AI agents to compress deposit yields[13][22]
Aakash Tuli
Director of Architecture, Engineering and Emerging Technology; leads adoption of AI and machine learning at the bank[21]
Mike Pell
EVP, Enterprise Mortgage; early adopter of Snapdocs AI funding quality control[11]
Which regulators govern Zions's AI?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| OCC | Zions Bancorporation, N.A. is a national bank without a holding company; document AI in origination and the Gemini platform fall under OCC model-risk and gen-AI expectations. | OCC Bulletin 2026-13 OCC Semiannual Risk Perspective, Spring 2026 |
| CFPB | AI in account opening, onboarding and loan origination is an ECOA and adverse-action question. | ECOA / Regulation B adverse action (15 U.S.C. 1691(d); 12 CFR 1002.9) Regulation B final rule on disparate impact (April 2026) |
| Federal Reserve | Google and Tata Consultancy Services are critical third parties under interagency guidance; the 2026 model-risk letter covers the fraud and document models. | SR 23-4 SR 26-2 |
| Colorado AI Act | A Colorado footprint (Vectra Bank) brings the state's automated-decision law into scope for consumer lending. | SB 26-189 |
Side by side: SR 11-7 vs SR 26-2 · OCC vs CFPB on AI lending · PRA SS1/23 vs SR 26-2 · MAS AI Risk Management Guidelines vs SR 26-2 · EU AI Act vs Colorado AI Act · all comparisons.
What does the public record suggest about Zions's AI strategy?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice.
01
The core is the moat, and the bank knows it
One data model for all loans and deposits is what most regionals lack; Zions should expect its AI results to compound from here, and its disclosure to be read against that head start.
02
Explicit caution is a governance asset
Saying publicly that no autonomous AI touches client-facing or critical decisions gives examiners a clear boundary; the cost is that competitors will ship agents sooner.
03
The fraud loss and the AI fraud tools belong in one conversation
A $50 million loss on two loans in the same year the bank was building AI fraud detection is the sharpest possible argument for where the next dollar goes.
04
Leadership transition is the near-term risk
Losing the executive who ran technology for a decade, months before an enterprise AI platform launches, puts the new CIO–COO pairing under immediate scrutiny.
Where does the Zions record go deeper?
3 topic pages under this profile, each answering one question from the same sourced record.
Which leader rankings does Zions appear in?
2 of the computed leaders rankings include Zions, each ranked from the same sourced bank pages.
How does Zions compare with its peers?
- How does Zions Bancorporation compare with its peers on AI and technology?
- Zions Bancorporation competitors and alternatives, by business line
Its peer group on this site, by business model and size:
How does Zions use AI?
By September 2025, 56% of Zions' workforce used generative AI for contract review, relationship-review preparation, credit presentations and email triage, trained through an internal peer-coaching programme. The bank uses AI to process unstructured documents for onboarding and loan origination and in targeted fraud-detection workflows, and is building an enterprise AI platform on Google Gemini. It says it has deliberately avoided fully autonomous AI in client-facing or critical decisions.
Who leads technology and AI at Zions?
Since March 2026, chief information officer Margaret Mayer (formerly of Discover and Capital One) and chief transformation and operations officer Ken Collins co-run enterprise technology and operations, after long-time chief technology and operations officer Jennifer Smith, who led the core replacement, left the bank.
Who leads AI at Zions?
Zions has no publicly named chief AI officer. AI sits in Enterprise Technology and Operations, run since 3 March 2026 by chief information officer Margaret Mayer, who is building the Gemini-based platform, and chief transformation and operations officer Ken Collins, whose team is the automation centre of excellence. The Data and AI Governance Committee, drawn from risk, legal, technology and data, sets policy under the 2025 10-K. Chief risk officer Chris Kyriakakis, a former Capital One technology-risk head, sits on the oversight side, and CEO Harris Simmons and president Scott McLean speak for the bank on AI at conferences.
Does Zions use AI in fraud and AML?
Yes, in targeted workflows. Zions uses AI for fraud detection and client authentication, and on the July 2025 call McLean said it is used actively to cut false positives in the wire room and in AML/BSA alert review. American Banker reported in September 2025 that advanced fraud and security detection tools were being built. Management says all final actions stay under human review, and the 10-K lists AI-enabled fraud against the bank as a risk.
What core platform does Zions run, and how does it relate to its AI work?
Zions runs Tata Consultancy Services' BaNCS for loans and deposits; it calls the project FutureCore. It was chosen in 2013 and finished with deposits in July 2024, after taking about three times longer than planned. Simmons says the data clean-up forced by the move, one data model for all loans and deposits, is what helps AI, not the platform itself. TCS's Quartz tokenised-deposit software is being tested in the bank's innovation lab.
- The Most Powerful Women to Watch, No. 3, Jennifer Smith, Zions Bancorporation
- Zions' revamped tech leadership team eyes AI, stablecoins
- Zions Bancorporation sees executive shuffle
- Wells Fargo alum tapped as Zions Bank's next CEO
- Zions CEO eyes acquisition opportunities
- Zions Bancorp's quarterly profit rises on interest income; offsets loan loss
- Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Zions (ZION) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
- Zions (ZION) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- Zions Bancorporation, National Association Q2 2026 Earnings Call Summary
- Zions Bancorporation Achieves 75% Hybrid Digital Closing Adoption After Just One Month with Snapdocs
- Zest AI Delivers Record First Half, Fueled by 77% Growth as Lenders Scale AI
- Zions leaders reflect on lessons learned from 11-year core upgrade
- Zions Bancorporation to Implement nCino Platform and Intelligent Solutions as the Technology Foundation of its Lending End-to-End Process Transformation
- Zions (ZION) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
- Zions at Barclays Conference: Strategic Optimism Amid Uncertainty
- Zions at RBC Capital Conference: Strategic Growth Amid Challenges
- Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026
- Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026
- Leadership: Corporate Officers
- Take 5 with Zions Talent: Aakash Tuli
- Peering into the core crystal ball
- Zions Bancorporation to Acquire Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Business Line from Basis Investment Group
- Regional Bank Worries Weigh on Stocks
When Zions moves on AI, you'll read it here first.
when one of the banks we cover moves on AI, it is in the next morning's brief · six sourced stories · 7 am PT · free
plus every regulation, bank and agent page update, the morning after · leave any morning