Citi is starting a new AI training program aimed at teaching hundreds of thousands of employees how to write better prompts to feed the bank\u2019s generative AI programs.<\/p>\n
In an internal memo shared with American Banker, Tim Ryan, Citi\u2019s head of technology and business enablement, and Anand Selva, the bank\u2019s chief operating officer, spotlighted the need for well-written prompts and introduced a mandatory AI training for the majority of its workforce. The memo was sent to 175,000 employees in 80 locations, American Banker reported<\/a> on Tuesday. The global bank had around 229,000 employees as of the fourth quarter of last year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Citi representative told Fortune confirmed that the training is meant to improve AI prompting among its workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cThis training is about teaching our colleagues the possibilities of great prompting versus basic prompting to generate impactful results,\u201d Peter Fox<\/a>, head of learning at Citi, told Fortune. The module uses an adaptive learning platform that tailors the training based on an employee\u2019s knowledge level, he added. \u201cExperts can complete it in under 10 minutes, while beginners take about 30 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Citi reported widespread employee engagement with AI technology in the memo, saying so far this year, employees have entered more than 6.5 million prompts in its built-in tools.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as the right question in a client pitch can reveal clarity and create advantage, a well-crafted prompt can accelerate your work, surface insights and amplify your impact,\u201d Ryan and Selva said in the company memo, according to American Banker.<\/p>\n Experts tell Fortune the democratization of AI skills among workers is a major cultural shift in banking and other white-collar industries.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople may wonder if they will become expendable,\u201d Christina Muller, workplace mental health expert and consultant at R3 Continuum, a national HR and workplace behavioral health agency, told Fortune. \u201cTraining is crucial to reinforce that AI is meant to be a co-pilot\u2014not a replacement\u2014on an already flying plane.\u201d<\/p>\n Citi\u2019s training announcement comes a week after Accenture<\/a> CEO Jule Sweet said<\/a> her company was exiting employees unable to reskill with the new tech. Similarly, Walmart<\/a> CEO Doug McMillon recently said<\/a> AI would affect \u201cvirtually every job\u201d at the global retailer.<\/p>\n Citi\u2019s widescale adoption of AI is \u201cturning work that once took hours into tasks done in minutes,\u201d the internal memo said. \u201cThe scale isn\u2019t just impressive; it marks the beginning of a new way of working.\u201d<\/p>\n Mandating AI training is a useful starting point, but by itself, it won\u2019t create meaningful results in the financial industry, Gary Lamach, SVP of strategy and growth at ELB Learning, a company that provides businesses with software professional services, told Fortune.<\/p>\n \u201cToo many organizations are treating AI as a box to check, launching a tool or rolling out a one-time training, and calling it transformation,\u201d Lamach added. \u201cThat\u2019s when implementation fails.\u201d<\/p>\n Citi\u2019s mandatory AI prompt training is part of a \u201ccontinuous upskilling process we\u2019re offering all employees,\u201d Citi\u2019s Fox said. The company is offering additional training for employees to learn more about AI in general.<\/p>\n Many of Citi\u2019s competitors have already been banking on AI training investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n JPMorgan has made AI training a mandatory part of onboarding<\/a> for all new employees since 2024, including prompt engineering and AI tool literacy. Bank of America<\/a> reported<\/a> in April more than 90% of its 213,000-strong global workforce leverages AI tools in daily work, driven by both voluntary and required training modules across departments. And Wells Fargo<\/a> trained<\/a> 4,000 employees in Stanford\u2019s Human-Centered AI program.\u00a0<\/p>\n