U.S. banks deploy AI to monitor customers & workers

Several U.S. banks have begun deploying camera software to help them analyze customer preferences, monitor workers and spot people sleeping near ATMs, even as they remain careful about likely backlash over increased surveillance.

Previously unreported trials at City National Bank of Florida (BCI.SN) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) as well as earlier rollouts at banks such as Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) gives us a vantage point from which we can measure the potential U.S. financial institutions see in facial recognition and other AI systems related to it.

In a strictly regulated sector such as the banking sector, widespread deployment of such visual AI tools would be a significant step in their quest to become more mainstream in corporate America.

Bobby Dominguez, chief information security officer at City National, said the face unlock feature on smartphones has paved the way. “We’re already leveraging facial recognition on mobile,” he said. “Why not leverage it in the real world?”

“We’re already leveraging facial recognition on mobile,” he said. “Why not leverage it in the real world?”

Wells Fargo said this new systems work to prevent fraud but declined to discuss how, while JPMorgan said it is “conducting a small test of video analytic technology with a handful of branches in Ohio.”