Customers Bank CEO Uses AI Clone in OpenAI Deal

Customers Bank CEO Sam Sidhu made an unusual announcement during the company’s first-quarter earnings call: the prepared remarks analysts had just heard were not read by him, but by his AI clone. Sidhu described it as a potential first for a public company earnings call and used the moment to highlight a much larger shift happening inside the bank. Customers Bank, a $25.9 billion asset lender focused on startups and small businesses, is now moving deeper into artificial intelligence through a multiyear partnership with OpenAI.

Under the deal, OpenAI engineers will be embedded at Customers Bank to help automate major parts of the bank’s operations, including lending and client onboarding. Sidhu said the bank wants to use AI agents as a new kind of digital workforce that can handle tasks around the clock. The goal is not just to experiment with new technology, but to directly improve business performance by making banking processes faster, more efficient, and easier for clients.

One major target is commercial lending. Sidhu said the bank wants to reduce the time it takes to close a commercial loan from 30 to 45 days down to about seven days. This would include speeding up underwriting, document collection, and legal negotiations. Customers Bank also hopes to make account openings for complex commercial clients much faster, reducing a process that can take more than a day to under 20 minutes through conversational AI and automated document gathering.

The partnership is also tied to financial goals. Customers Bank wants to improve its efficiency ratio from about 49 percent to the low 40s and increase returns starting in 2027. The bank already uses AI to write about half of its software code and says it has saved 28,000 hours of work, equal to avoiding the need for about 15 full-time employees. Sidhu said AI could allow the bank to slow hiring while increasing revenue per employee and exploring new business lines that would have been too expensive before.

OpenAI also stands to benefit from the partnership. The company has been targeting finance as one of its key industries and has hired former bankers to help train its models. Through Customers Bank, OpenAI gains real-world experience inside a regulated financial institution, while helping build enterprise tools that could eventually be sold to other banks. OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser said the company is proud to support Customers Bank as it builds a more intelligent operating model that empowers employees and improves client service.

For Customers Bank, the OpenAI deal represents more than a technology upgrade. It shows how artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape traditional finance, from earnings calls to lending decisions and customer onboarding. Sidhu believes smaller banks may have an advantage because they can move faster than megabanks with more complex global operations and stricter implementation challenges. If successful, the partnership could give Customers Bank a stronger competitive position while also creating tools that reshape how other regional banks use AI in the future.

Works Cited

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“This Bank CEO Let His AI Clone Handle an Earnings Call, Now He’s Signing an OpenAI Deal.” Springfield Business Journal, 27 Apr. 2026, sbj.net/stories/this-bank-ceo-let-his-ai-clone-handle-an-earnings-call-now-hes-signing-an-openai-deal,104011. 

Eagle, Reading. “Customers Bancorp CEO Sam Sidhu Talks Strategy, Goals, Challenges.” Reading Eagle, 24 Mar. 2026, www.readingeagle.com/2026/03/24/customers-bancorp-ceo-sam-sidhu-talks-strategy-goals-challenges/. 

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