JPMorgan’s AI-Aided Cashflow Model Can Cut Manual Work By 90%

The JPMorgan Chase & Co. headquarters in New York.

(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. helped some of its corporate customers slash manual work by almost 90% with its cashflow management tool that runs on artificial intelligence, bringing the largest US bank one step closer to charging for this service.

“We are going to keep investing into this solution because we see that we're starting to really crack this workflow,” said Tony Wimmer, head of data and analytics at JPMorgan's wholesale payments unit, in an interview. Since launching about a year ago, his firm now has about 2,500 clients using the product, he said.

The tool, which allows corporate treasuries to analyse and forecast cash flows, has seen “tremendous” interest from its clients who currently use it for free, Wimmer said. His firm is considering charging its customers in the future to use the solution, dubbed Cash Flow Intelligence.

The world's biggest banks have been stepping up their use of artificial intelligence with the aim of lifting productivity and reducing costs. JPMorgan's Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has said the technology could eventually allow employers to shrink the workweek to just 3.5 days. JPMorgan set a target of $1 billion in “business value” generated by AI in 2023, and the firm increased that goal to $1.5 billion at its investor day in May.

“Cashflow forecasting is very complex and you need a lot of judgment,” Wimmer said. “I'm a firm believer that component of machines enhanced by humans will not go away for a long time.”

While the software helped some clients in reducing their manual work by 90% in categorizing and visualizing the payment flows, the decisions to manage the liquidity still need to be made by humans.

Wimmer, with his team of 250-300 people including data scientists and data engineers, helps organize and develop solutions for clients based on information from the $10 trillion of payments JPMorgan helps move every day. Out of that, cashflow projections are one of Wimmer's key focus areas, where he spends the biggest chunk of his time, he said.

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