Nearly 30 minutes into its Q1 earnings call, Customers Bank CEO Sam Sidhu told analysts the voice they'd heard for the prepared remarks wasn't his. The $25.9 billion regional lender has a multiyear partnership with OpenAI to embed engineers and build automated systems aimed at speeding loan timelines and cutting the bank's efficiency ratio from roughly 49 to the low 40s.

What happened on the call Nearly half an hour into the Q1 conference call, Sam Sidhu, chief executive officer of Customers Bank, told analysts the voice they'd heard for the prepared remarks was not his. "The prepared remarks you heard on my behalf today were delivered by my AI clone, not read by me," Sidhu said. The disclosure came during a routine earnings presentation used to discuss quarterly results and outlook. The remarks served as both a demonstration of new technology and a launch point for a broader operational shift Sidhu described to investors. The OpenAI partnership Customers Bank has entered a multiyear partnership with OpenAI under which the AI company will place engineers inside the bank to help build automated systems for lending, deposits and payments. Sidhu said the two firms will work together to develop what he called "end-to-end, automated agentic led workflow." He also said the relationship could be commercial: "We're going to be co-creating enterprise solutions they could potentially sell to other banks in the future," he told investors. The operational case: speed and efficiency Sidhu anchored the bank's AI strategy to concrete financial goals rather than general productivity promises. He forecasted that automating core processes would cut loan turnaround from weeks to days, shorten onboarding timelines for new clients, and reduce the amount of human labor tied to routine tasks. Those changes, he said, would move the bank's efficiency ratio — a measure of operating costs relative to revenue — from roughly 49 down into the low 40s, a shift Sidhu argued would lift returns beginning next year. He presented the plan as a way to scale business without adding staff at the same pace as growth. How the bank plans to use AI The bank intends to deploy agentic AI across the lending lifecycle, including: - sourcing and underwriting loans - automating documentation - handling client onboarding steps that typically require manual review Sidhu described a vision where AI agents manage workflows end-to-end, escalating only non-routine decisions to human staff. For clients, the immediate effect could be faster approvals and simpler paperwork; for employees, the bank plans to redirect people to higher-value tasks while AI handles repetitive steps. Market context and industry focus OpenAI has pushed into finance as a target sector, and Customers Bank's deal is an example of that strategy in action. Sidhu positioned the partnership as an attempt to get ahead of rivals by building custom, bank-grade automation with embedded engineering support from a major AI vendor. The effort comes as banks of various sizes test large language models and other AI tools for compliance.

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"The goal here is end-to-end, automated agentic led workflow," Sam Sidhu, CEO of Customers Bank, said on the earnings call.

This article was created with AI assistance.