Transformation at scale: CIBC’s strategic leap into Enterprise Generative AI

In the past year, generative AI (GenAI) has emerged as a true catalyst for transformation by challenging conventional approaches to productivity and innovation. At CIBC, we’ve embraced these new opportunities with an enterprise launch of our internally-developed GenAI tool, CIBC AI, affectionately known as CAI, to employees across our bank.

Our journey to launch and integrate CAI across CIBC has been transformative. From recognizing the potential of AI to considering the risks and complexities of a project of this scale, from change management to incorporating AI in a highly-regulated industry, it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come. 

We began by launching a pilot of CAI to 500 employees to test the technology and validate its impact. Although we anticipated a rapid surge in adoption, we didn’t predict that within eight months we’d grow to over 7,500 users, highlighting the appetite for this technology, and providing us with key insights into how CAI is changing the way we work.

One of the most exciting discoveries during this expansion was how quickly GenAI became an integral part of our employees' workflow, and how our team members found ways to incorporate it into their various roles. For example, many team members began using the AI tool to enhance their communications — polishing emails, drafting reports, and preparing presentations — while others looked to it for coding assistance or post-meeting support. Such widespread, practical adoption underscored the tool's capability to augment our skills rather than replace them.

I previously shared how we came to the decision to build an in-house solution instead of working with a vendor. So far we’ve seen that building from the ground up was the right choice for us. CAI offers us insights into usage patterns to adapt the tool to better help our team members, while allowing us to maintain strict data governance protocols, providing an extra layer of protection to our data. 

However, building and adapting CAI was only part of this journey — the bigger piece was fostering enterprise-wide adoption. Integrating a new technology at such a scale required more than just deploying software — it needed a shift in organizational culture and mindset. We invested in training programs, workshops and creating a network of change champions to help foster trust, address questions and demonstrate the tangible benefits of CAI.

There were certainly bumps in the road and we changed directions countless times. We quickly realized that the appetite of CAI reached well beyond the Technology team, and how important it was to expand to employees across the whole bank. It was crucial to put the employee experience at the forefront to help them succeed in using CAI by understanding what it is and how it can support them.

Accommodating the regulations of the financial industry also added a level of complexity to this project. The financial industry is highly regulated — and for good reason. We have a responsibility to protect our clients, their interests and their data, and the introduction of GenAI can be scary to those who aren’t familiar with it. Understanding key risks, remaining aligned to industry standards and being precise in the purpose of CAI were at the core of our planning, decision-making and execution.

This milestone is a pivotal step in our AI journey that underscores our commitment to data security, user trust and responsible innovation, as we continue to embrace cutting-edge AI technologies. Our journey with CAI is far from over, and we’re excited about the next phase, which will see things like customized recipes that can be shared between employees, an internal collaboration hub and growing our community.