Bank of America plans to double its AI budget while warning against AI overuse

Bank of America plans to double its artificial intelligence budget next year. Its chief technology and information officer also thinks a lot of companies, his own included, reach for AI too quickly. That sounds like a contradiction. It is closer to a spending philosophy: put more money into AI, and get pickier about where it goes. The tech chief’s warning Hari Gopalkrishnan, Bank of America’s CTIO, made the point at Fortune’s AIQ Summit in New York. He argued that AI often gets picked as the answer before anyone checks whether a simpler tool would work. “One of the biggest mistakes we see us and others doing is rush to AI as a solution, when deterministic models do a plenty good job.” A deterministic model follows fixed rules, so the same input always produces the same output. For a bank, that predictability matters. Regulators, auditors and customers tend to prefer systems that behave the same way every time. The numbers behind the bet Bank of America’s plan to double AI spending, with the expansion running toward 2027, is reportedly driven by strong returns on what it has already built. Employee-driven initiatives have also fed into the decision. CEO Brian Moynihan has put figure...