A few weeks ago Wall Street Journal interviewed Teresa Heitsenrether,, who heads up the AI rollout at the nation’s largest bank, JP Morgan. Sure, you read about all the AI news from Google, Microsoft, NVidia OpenAI and all the big tech announcements. You can track AI startups like Manus, DeepSeek and others that are are building new models, algorithms and tools. But if you really want to know how AI is being used in the business world, then watch JP Morgan.
That’s because JP Morgan is one of the many big companies who are on the front lines of AI. They’re the ones spending countless millions on AI to improve productivity, increase profits and – let’s not mistake this – keep their headcount as low as possible. They’re not alone. Many big brands in other industries – from Taco Bell to Marriott to Ford – are, like JP Morgan, licensing AI models from OpenAI, Llama and Google to do the same. That’s because AI is a big, corporate thing.
Early Days for AI At JPM
So what’s the status as of February 24, 2025, the date this interview was published?
“It’s very early innings,” Heitsenrether admitted. “First we want to put the tool in people’s hands, and let them be able to ask questions and get answers. That already starts to spawn ideas, innovation, some productivity.”
JP Morgan, like other big brands, has big plans. The banking giant has started with a generative AI rollout that’s being used by about two-thirds of their employees on “average for one-to-two hours a week.” The platform is there to help internal employees do quicker research across multiple datasets so that they’re better prepared for client interactions and internal meetings. It’s also being used by customer service reps to look up transactions and more quickly and accurately resolve issues.
Heitsenrether’s next plans to marry their AI platforms with the bank’s policies and procedures so it can learn to act like a JP Morgan professional. And then comes the big payoff: AI doing the work of humans.
“The third horizon, and we’re not there yet, is for the models to be able to do more reasoningl” she said. “What happens is they get a chance to think, OK, based on the complexity of the problem that you’re asking me, let me think in the same way a human being would approach it. It lets the model find the resources it needs. Maybe it’s going to go to the internet or some system outside JPMorgan’s databases. You can effectively take the workflow of somebody who’s an investment-banking analyst or client-service person and teach the models the steps they would take to get their jobs done.”
Many AI Risks Lay Ahead
It all sounds exciting. But it’s also extremely risky. Particularly for a conservative financial institution. Heitsenrether is going to have a lot of challenges. Differentiating and choosing between both public and private data will invite copyright and intellectual property arguments. Mimimizing the potential catastrophic costs of AI hallucinations which can cause wrong decisions and poor advice. Implementing controls to reign in its AI agents’ behavior that can initiate incorrect orders, offer bad advice or generate inaccurate research. Navigating the bad press of replacing people with technology. Navigating client concerns about dealing with bots instead of actual humans, particularly when a bot isn’t able to understand human emotions and nuances.
Customers are fickle. People are dubious. Employees are frightened. Shareholders are impatient. And the technology? Well, we all know how unreliable that can be. I’m betting Heitsenrether has plenty of sleepless nights ahead of her, particularly those evenings before the next new AI thing gets rolled out.
Why Business Should Be Thankful For Their AI Investments
And for this, businesses should be thankful.
Countless soldiers died building Rome’s Appian Way through enemy territory. Many more perished constructing the Panama Canal. Dozens of astronauts have died as we pursued space travel. At JP Morgan, like other big brands, there’s likely (hopefully) to be few deaths from their pioneering AI efforts. But there will certainly be costs. And mistakes. And potential lawsuits. And the loss of shareholder value. All of this to achieve a model of operating that is more automated, faster, reliable and accurate. This will not happen overnight. It will take years.
And like the first roads of Europe and a new passage for shipping, the successes of JP Morgan will be shared by the rest of us. They’re the ones figuring out how AI will benefit the business world and as they’re testing it in real life situations with actual people new ideas will emerge and new products will be developed. Ultimately, this trickles down to the rest of the business community as tech startups and other entrepreneurs watch, copy and develop cheaper and more efficient systems to market.
Despite the surveys you see, small businesses aren’t using AI. Sure, we’re dabbling with ChatGPT or other chatbots. But none of us are deploying AI in our core accounting, CRM, HR and operational systems. And we don’t have the resources to develop, test, train and expand our own AI projects. We’re waiting for this technology to be available someday so we can use it where it really matters. That day wouldn’t be possible without big companies risking their resources on these solutions.
Of course, they’re doing it for their own benefit. But the rest of us will benefit from this too.
Read the full article here
