Customers Bank CEO Sam Sidhu left analysts stunned during a conference call when he revealed that the voice they had been listening to was not actually his, as CNBC reported details of the bank’s new AI push. Nearly 30 minutes into the bank’s first-quarter earnings call, Sidhu shared the surprise. “The prepared remarks you heard on my behalf today were delivered by my AI clone, not read by me,” he said. Sidhu added that it may have been the first time a public company used an AI clone during an earnings call.
Customers Bank signs major deal with OpenAI
Customers Bank has signed a multiyear partnership with OpenAI, CNBC reported. Under the agreement, OpenAI engineers will work inside the bank to help automate key tasks such as lending and onboarding new customers.
Customers Bank has $25.9 billion in assets and focuses on startups and small businesses. Sidhu wants the bank to move ahead of rivals as financial firms race to use AI agents as a new kind of digital workforce.
AI to speed up loans and account openings
The bank plans to use AI to improve some of its slowest and most time-consuming processes. Sidhu said closing a commercial loan currently takes between 30 and 45 days. That includes underwriting, collecting documents and legal negotiations.
With AI systems in place, he believes that the timeline can be reduced to around seven days. Opening accounts for complex business clients, which now can take more than a full day, could drop to under 20 minutes through conversational AI and automated document collection.
“When you have an autonomous agent, you’re essentially creating a digital worker … and they can work around the clock,” Sidhu said, according to CNBC.
Bank expects better profits from AI push
Sidhu is also putting clear financial goals behind the project. He told CNBC the partnership should improve the bank’s efficiency ratio from around 49% to the low 40s. He expects stronger returns beginning next year, with bigger gains starting in 2027. The partnership is not one-sided.
Sidhu said Customers Bank and OpenAI will create enterprise finance tools together, and some of those products could later be sold by OpenAI to other banks. “We’re going to be co-creating enterprise solutions they could potentially sell to other banks in the future,” Sidhu said. “The goal here is end-to-end, automated agentic-led workflow” for lending, deposits and payments.
OpenAI praises the partnership
OpenAI said it was proud to support the project. “We are proud to help Customers Bank as they build a more intelligent operating model that empowers employees, strengthens client service, and sets a new standard for regional banking,” OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser said in a statement.
Customers Bank expects to launch AI agents across lending, deposits and payments over the next six to twelve months. The bank has been preparing for this shift for years.
Sidhu said Customers Bank first started using OpenAI in 2023. He added that he had a small investment in OpenAI through contacts in the venture capital world. The new deal, signed last week, brings OpenAI engineers directly into the bank’s systems.
AI already saving thousands of work hours
Customers Bank is already using AI to write around half of its software code, according to Sidhu. He said the bank has saved 28,000 work hours so far, which is equal to avoiding the need to hire around 15 full-time workers. “This is an opportunity for us to potentially slow that hiring … and do more revenue per employee,” he said, according to CNBC.
Customers Bank is much smaller than giants like JPMorgan Chase, which has $4.9 trillion in assets. But Sidhu believes being smaller could actually help. He said large banks have more complex global operations and tougher regulatory requirements when introducing AI systems.
“Smaller banks are not going to be expected to have the same level of frameworks as many of the larger banks,” he said. He added that regulators want community and regional banks “to be able to compete with larger banks.”