Wells Fargo Scales AI to Meet Surging Customer Demand

Wells Fargo continued to enhance its digital offering during the first quarter to keep pace with customer demand, executives said Tuesday (April 14) during the bank’s first quarter earnings call.

“As customer expectations evolve, we continue to modernize our digital offering, complementing our in-person service with seamless mobile experiences,” Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO Charlie Scharf said during the call.

“The momentum continued in the first quarter as mobile active users surpassed 33 million, Zelle transactions increased 14% from a year ago, and Fargo, our AI-powered virtual assistant, reached over 1 billion customer interactions less than three years since its launch.”

Wells Fargo made headlines with its digital initiatives during the first quarter.

On March 10, the bank filed a trademark application for “WFUSD,” a new digital asset-centric platform. Wells Fargo said in its filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that WFUSD would provide services “featuring software for tokenization of assets” and “cryptocurrency payments processing” and would “execute trades of digital assets.”

The bank’s executives didn’t address digital assets or tokenization during Tuesday’s call. In a Tuesday earnings release, however, Wells Fargo identified as a potential risk factor “the effect of technological changes, including artificial intelligence and digital assets, on us, our customers, or our competitive landscape.”

When reporting figures about customers’ usage of its Wells Fargo Mobile app and the Fargo virtual assistant in a March 26 press release, the bank said that it is responsibly scaling AI and new banking experiences and that customers are embracing digital tools for their ability to complete financial tasks quickly, securely and with greater personalization.

According to a financial results presentation issued Tuesday, the number of mobile active users rose from 31.8 million in the first quarter of 2025 to 33.5 million in the first quarter of 2026.

Scharf said during Tuesday’s call that the bank’s card business has also benefited from its investment in digital tools.

“We’re increasing the amount of advertising we’re doing both in the card business and the broader consumer business,” Scharf said. “That plus more of the targeted things we’re doing in the digital space is driving increases there.”

In January, Wells Fargo appointed Amazon Web Services (AWS) executive Faraz Shafiq as head of AI products and solutions, effective Feb. 9. The bank said Shafiq would oversee the vision, roadmap and development of AI-powered products across its operations.

During Tuesday’s call, Scharf said that the bank is investing in technology while continuing to reduce its headcount. He said Wells Fargo remains focused on expense discipline.

“At the same time, we’re increasing our investments in areas like technology, including AI, as well as in advertising, while continuing to execute on our efficiency initiatives, which has resulted in 23 consecutive quarters of headcount reductions,” Scharf said.