Company’s patent portfolio includes nearly 1,100 AI and machine learning patents

CHARLOTTE / LONDON / HONG KONG – Bank of America is dedicated to the use of innovative technology to best meet the needs of its clients and employees. This commitment to innovation has led to a 94% increase in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) granted patents and pending patent applications since 2022. Today, the company has nearly 1,100 AI and ML patents and pending applications in its portfolio, with more than half having already been granted. 

Overall, the bank holds nearly 7,000 granted patents and pending patent applications, and the most granted patents of any financial services company. This is thanks to the creativity of its more than 7,500 talented inventors based in 14 countries and 42 US states, and a culture that empowers teammates to explore and develop innovative solutions for individuals and businesses around the world.

“We innovate to meet and anticipate our clients’ needs. As our pace of innovation accelerates, we’re continually listening to clients and building solutions to improve and simplify their experiences,” said Aditya Bhasin, Chief Technology & Information Officer at Bank of America. “Such has been the case with our approach to AI, machine learning, and related technology for many years – the use of which centers on the benefits to our clients and employees.”   

In addition to artificial intelligence and machine learning, other technology categories in which new patents have been granted to Bank of America this year include information security, online and mobile banking, payments, data analytics, and augmented and virtual reality.

Bank of America spends over $12 billion annually on technology, of which approximately $4 billion will be directed to new technology initiatives in 2024. These ongoing investments continue to enhance client experiences and drive operational efficiencies.

AI benefits expanding

Bank of America’s approach to AI includes human oversight, transparency, and accountability for all outcomes. A few examples of how AI and machine learning are being used responsibly across the company to benefit clients and employees include: 

• Erica® – More than 45 million clients have used Erica, the most advanced and first widely available AI-driven virtual financial assistant. This massive adoption has led to 2.4 billion interactions with Erica since its launch in 2018. Over the last six years, Erica’s capabilities have expanded to support individual and corporate clients, including within Merrill, Benefits OnLine®, and the company’s award-winning CashPro® platform.   
• Wealth Management – Launched in 2020, Client Insights uses AI-enabled data analytics to help Merrill Wealth Management and Bank of America Private Bank advisors identify, manage, and act on changes in client circumstances. This leads to opportunities to best serve clients’ tax harvesting, retirement planning, and student banking needs, and more. Over 30 million insights have been delivered to advisors since launch, helping them and their teams proactively connect with clients about these timely and relevant opportunities.
• CashPro Chat – CashPro is a digital banking platform used by 40,000 corporate and commercial clients around the world to manage their treasury operations. As the platform’s virtual service advisor, CashPro Chat uses the same AI and machine learning capabilities powering Erica to help clients quickly view transactions, find information about accounts, and more. The questions CashPro Chat can assist with have doubled since its launch last year, and the capability now includes “intelligent advisor routing” – an AI-enabled feature that quickly recognizes complex requests and routes clients to a live specialist with expertise in that area when needed and with a single click.
• Bank of America Intelligent Receivables® – This reconciliation solution uses AI and advanced data capture technology to bring together payment information and associated remittance details from various payment channels, offering greater efficiency and insights to companies and their customers around the world. Intelligent Receivables match payments to outstanding invoices and thereby reduce time and costs associated with manual processing while speeding up reconciliation to enable new sales. The system, delivered in collaboration with a third party, also uses AI to learn customer patterns and behaviors to improve the accuracy of remittance data over time.
• Global Markets – Bank of America’s internal facing chatbot leverages natural language processing and machine learning to answer queries that arise during the trading day – continually improving the accuracy of responses based on previously answered questions. Deployed to over 20 areas of Global Markets, the chatbot connects the company’s proprietary systems and databases to deliver intuitive responses to trading-related questions such as real-time market depth, trending indicators, historical trading volumes, current exposures, and unmatched or canceled trades. This enables traders to respond to client inquiries with greater consistency and speed, and with higher quality data.