Bank of America hired 1,000 contractors to fix software vulnerabilities — CNBC

In the United States, Bank of America engaged 1,000 external contractors to work alongside 3,000 staff employees to address vulnerabilities in its own software and in vendors' code. The work was stepped up after advanced artificial intelligence models, including Anthropic Mythos, identified problems in software systems, CNBC reports.

Contractors were engaged in the second quarter

Bank CEO Brian Moynihan said that the 1,000 contractors were brought in during the second quarter and are still helping update the systems. According to him, after models of this level emerged, the company decided to accelerate the review and remediation of a broad range of internal code and vendors' software products.

Moynihan called the risk real and said the bank needs to stay ahead of threats. He also expects the costs of fixing vulnerabilities to decline over time, as the need for such work decreases after systems are remediated.

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Costs and savings from AI

In the third quarter, Bank of America's expenses for fixing software issues and regulatory matters related to compliance with anti-money-laundering requirements together amounted to several hundred million dollars and more, Moynihan told analysts. At the same time, the bank is developing about 130 internal artificial intelligence projects. Savings from them are expected to increase from $300 million this year to $700 million in 2027.

Over the past year, Bank of America's headcount has decreased by about 3,400 people, while the number of managers has been reduced by approximately 5%. Moynihan did not specify what share of this reduction is related to the use of artificial intelligence.