Citigroup has tapped Shobhit Varshney, a longtime IBM executive, as its new head of AI, the latest sign of how Wall Street is racing to bring artificial intelligence deeper into banking.
Varshney comes from IBM, where he was the head of data and artificial intelligence for the technology pioneer’s consulting business. At Citi, he will report to Anand Selva, the bank’s chief operating officer; and will work closely with the firm’s chief technology officer, David Griffiths, to scale AI across the company, according to a memo sent to Citi employees on Tuesday morning seen by Business Insider.
Citi has already given about 175,000 employees access to AI tools like Stylus, Workspaces, and Assist. The bank has also begun using AI to strengthen customer service in its US personal banking business through a “multi-year initiative to enhance our customers’ experience through specialized GenAI tools, driving efficiency and operational excellence,” Selva wrote in the memo.
“With Shobhit’s leadership, we will accelerate the hard work that has been underway for more than a year to integrate the power of AI into Citi’s strategy and operations,” Selva wrote in the note to employees. “Our firmwide goals are clear: responsibly build AI capabilities that enhance the client and colleague experience, strengthen internal controls and boost internal productivity.”
This summer, Business Insider reported that the Tribeca-based firm was “accelerating” its AI plans with the appointment of three senior leaders to steer the bank’s strategy. Gonzalo Luchetti runs US Personal Banking and brings a focus on consumers. Tim Ryan runs Technology and Business Enablement and has the tech skills. Selva will help spread the strategy across operations.
The move highlights the broader race among banks to deploy AI. As Business Insider has reported, firms from JPMorgan to Goldman Sachs are experimenting with ways to automate routine work, improve risk controls, and boost efficiency through new tools. At a Barclays financial services conference on Monday, Goldman CEO David Solomon said he was extremely optimistic about the potential for AI to boost efficiency and release capital for new investments.
Any conversation about technology at Citi invariably turns to “the transformation,” the bank’s efforts — which are overseen by Selva — to reconcile with its long-running data management issues. It’s in the process of revamping the sprawling firm to appease regulators.
“Citi is modernizing our infrastructure and automating manual processes, simplifying our ways of working and upgrading technology and platforms,” Selva wrote in the memo, adding: “Our firmwide AI integration is a natural continuation of this work.”
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Here’s the full text of Selva’s memo to staff:
Message From Anand Selva
Dear Colleagues,
I’m excited to share that Shobhit Varshney has joined Citi as Head of AI. Shobhit joins Citi from IBM — a leader in AI implementation.
Shobhit’s Mandate
Shobhit has worked at IBM, as well as with large organizations, to drive AI-led transformations at scale, partnering with a broad range of stakeholders. Building on this experience, he will partner closely with Citi’s Executive Management Team and leaders across the firm to co-create an agile process and data-driven approach for scaling AI responsibly across our firm. Working together with our established AI community, including our AI Leads, Champions and Accelerators, Shobhit will drive adoption and deployment of AI across Citi.
In this role, Shobhit will report directly to me, working in lockstep with David Griffiths, our Chief Technology Officer, who’s leading the development of our firmwide AI technology tools and capabilities.
At IBM, Shobhit was Head of Data & AI, and was responsible for leading the AI, Data & Automation business at IBM Consulting across the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
AI at Citi
With Shobhit’s leadership, we will accelerate the hard work that has been underway for more than a year to integrate the power of AI into Citi’s strategy and operations. Our firmwide goals are clear: responsibly build AI capabilities that enhance the client and colleague experience, strengthen internal controls and boost internal productivity. We’re already seeing progress:
Our Citi AI tools — Stylus, Workspaces and Assist — have been rolled out to ~175,000 colleagues globally, and we’re seeing our teams use these tools in new and creative ways.
We’re using AI to assess and strengthen our internal controls, for example within our improved Manager’s Control Assessment (MCA), where teams used AI to prioritize controls improvement work.
In U.S. Personal Banking, we’ve launched a multi-year initiative to enhance our customers’ experience through specialized GenAI tools, driving efficiency and operational excellence. We’ve rolled out our new tools, like Agent Assist, to over 5,000 agents so far across our three businesses: Branded Cards, Retail Services and Retail Banking.
Citi is modernizing our infrastructure and automating manual processes, simplifying our ways of working and upgrading technology and platforms. Our firmwide AI integration is a natural continuation of this work. We have established a strong foundation for the development of AI technology and its responsible deployment at Citi. As we continue to build on our foundation and continue to invest, we are at a point to scale and expand our capabilities across the firm.
Please join me in welcoming Shobhit to the firm. I know he shares our excitement and vision for Citi’s future and will hit the ground running to strategically expedite our AI capabilities. As a firm, we share a commitment to becoming a better bank every day and embracing AI is a critical part of this journey. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and curiosity so far — there are many more exciting milestones ahead!
Anand