The Wall Street Journal reports:

Similar to human employees, these digital workers have direct managers they report to and work autonomously in areas like coding and payment instruction validation, said Chief Information Officer Leigh-Ann Russell. Soon they'll have access to their own email accounts and may even be able to communicate with colleagues in other ways like through Microsoft Teams, she said.

What the bank, also known as BNY, calls "digital workers," other banks may refer to as "AI agents." And while the industry lacks a clear consensus on exact terminology, it's clear that the technology has a growing presence in financial services.

"This is the next level," Russell told the Journal. "I'm sure in six months' time it will become very, very prevalent."

BNY said its AI Hub developed two digital employee personas in three months, according to Adrienne Russell. One persona is engineered to identify and resolve coding vulnerabilities, while the other verifies payment instructions. Each persona can operate in multiple instances—up to several dozen—with each instance confined to a specific team to limit company wide data access.

Soon, the bank plans to integrate its digital workforce with email addresses and Microsoft Teams access in the near future, enabling these AI personas to proactively communicate with human managers, but will maintain its focus on recruiting top human talent while simultaneously expanding its digital workforce, according to the Journal.

Of course, BNY isn't the only bank looking to shift work from its human staff to AI. Goldman Sachs has already launched an internal AI assistant to 10,000 of its bankers, traders and asset managers to use. In an interview with CNBC, the bank's Chief Information Officer, Marco Argenti, said the AI assistant will pitch in with basic tasks like proofreading documents and improving language. "Think about all the tasks that you might want to complete with regards to a variety of use cases for all those professions that can be now at your fingertips," Argenti said. "The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee."