(27 January 2026 – Japan) Japan’s largest bank is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and human staff with dedicated AI designed for specific roles.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is assigning different chatbots to selected teams in unique ways to boost productivity across 20 individual functions. Humans will “remain in control” as the bank does not want a single “all-powerful AI” with operations run from on an India-based global efficiency centre.
Last year the Japanese megabank with almost US$3 trillion in assets invested in LayerX to save an estimated 200,000 hours a year in areas such as Requests for Proposals (RFPs), sales pitches and cross checking customer financial data using LayerX’s platform to streamline processes.
“Our CEO says we should make the workplace as friendly as possible for our AI colleagues. I want diversity. Different personalities, different risk levels. I don’t want compliance and credit office AIs to act like our sales and trading AIs. In decision making, humans are always in the loop. At this moment, we’re deploying AI with human intervention, basically delivering the groundwork that we would have prepared manually otherwise” commented MUFG Executive Officer and APAC Chief of Staff, Osamu Abe.
“AI can save time by improving work quality and strengthening security. Routine tasks such as emails, transcripts, PowerPoints, client proposals and forming new business contacts are all faster with AI support. AI also helps with regulatory work, including KYC checks and identity verification, ensuring accuracy for compliance. It helps link MUFG’s global operations, connecting clients in Asia, Europe, and the US”.
“Regulators are interested in what we do with third-party data when we work with outside parties. Banks should be allowed to use advanced services. Eventually, we will probably find a common ground in terms of what these governance norms should look like”.
AI has moved rapidly from hype to reality. It is no longer a question on if banks should adopt AI, but how fast and deeply they must embed upgraded capabilities across operations to meet modern customer expectations. Explore key global AI trends in banking and what is coming next with quantum computing in Tech Mahindra’s white paper Building the AI-Driven Bank of Tomorrow.
The analysis is based on proprietary global research by East & Partners bringing together the combined voices of 150 senior banking executives across the Asia Pacific (APAC), Americas, Europe, and the Nordics.
Over 1 in 3 financial institutions (FIs) are already investing aggressively in GenAI to capture early-mover advantage (37%). European banks (49%) are outpacing peers in AI investment by a considerable margin, ahead of Americas (39%), the Nordics (32%) and APAC (26%). However, 1 in 4 banks still struggle to adopt new AI solutions, risking being left behind (25%): https://www.techmahindra.com/insights/reports/bank-of-tomorrow/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=%E2%80%A6#
