Bank of America

CFO Alastair Borthwick, prepared remarks, Q3 2026 earnings call (October 14, 2026): "We also invested in technology modernization, AI, client acquisition, marketing, and franchise growth. At the same time, productivity continues to improve, as evidenced by our headcount. Even as we add headcount in our sales forces, our headcount was down nearly 3,500 from a year ago as we automate processes and simplify work across the company. This means we don't need to hire quite as many people to refill roles." CEO Brian Moynihan, same call, answering a question on AI deployment: "If you look year-over-year, the total expense base was up $1.2 billion and the headcount was down 3,000 round numbers." "How do we maintain that kind of 1%-2% expense growth with all the investments we are making. We are open five branches in Milwaukee this month and things like that, more headcount front client facing. That is by engineering both through engineering process, through AI application, et cetera. You see it already in the numbers, and we expect to continue going forward" "AI has helped us." "We are going to continue to invest in driving the growth in the franchise, and AI is a major part of that. Say, $300 million going to $700 million, headcount down by 3,000, 1.5% year-over-year. Managers down by about 5% in that, and production teammates that are doing the client-facing work are actually up year-over-year."