Wells Fargo optimizes business processes with data-driven business transformation, according to Ashley Regner, the banking giant’s chief data officer.
Regner spoke to Bloomberg’s Diksha Gera this week at The Business Value of AI event in Atlanta, revealing how she has used data to accelerate business results by improving business processes and building customer-centric solutions.
The “third generation” of data at Wells Fargo
Modern businesses are in the “third generation of data,” where data serves as the foundation for artificial intelligence (AI) to drive competitive advantage focused on growth, Regner said. “When we bring the combination of data, technology and the business together, that really unleashes a different level of power for us. I think historically we’ve worked in silos and now working across has really unlocked that potential of accelerating growth.”
Wells Fargo is moving from the generative AI environment, where models are learning, to the agentic AI environment, were models are being deployed within the company, Regner said.
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Business transformation that optimizes business processes
Wells Fargo has “hundreds” of business transformation initiatives currently in the works, but there are two specific areas where it has seen the most impact, according to Regner.
The first relates to employee experiences. “How are we thinking about our employees, our efficiencies and how are they experiencing the work that we do every day?” The second focuses on using knowledge and insights from around the business to drive customer value, Regner said.
“We have different solutions, whether they are [for] developer productivity or they are looking at contract management from vendor procurement. An example from a customer experience is taking all the information that we’ve received in call centers for years and years, understanding how we actually learn, what are our customers wanting, what do we need to make easier for them and how do we accelerate that and bring new products to market?”
This strategy emphasizes assessing previous processes and applying new insights and new growth opportunities to improve them.
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Driving successful AI adoption
Developing and maintaining AI infrastructure is expensive. Regner said that Wells Fargo, like many organizations, is still in the early stages of figuring out AI ROI. However, it is “exploring different ways” to drive and sustain value from AI, she added
“We look at where it [AI] is coming from, which businesses are supporting it. We look at the value creation of that particular product, but also one of the things that we were looking for is prioritizing the ones where we can create a common capability and apply it to every business. Where do you get the multiplier? Where do you get the scale? Prioritizing those at the top of the list and starting to work through those.”
Regner advised looking at efficiencies too. “We wanted to focus on internal opportunities first. Then that’s recently pivoted. We [now] prioritize more of the customer growth opportunities. So it’s a little bit more of a matrix framework at this point, but we learn something new every time we think about it. We’re learning not only the value but also how much it costs to build.”