TD Securities launched an AI virtual assistant in June that lets traders query the bank’s own equity research, and the early results look positive. “It’s a massive time save,” Dan Bosman, chief information officer at TD Securities, told American Banker. “It’s not unusual for people in the capital markets group to receive ten 20-page PDFs simultaneously in their email inbox. “Even if you’re the fastest reader and you’re really skim reading, you have to take that first 30 minutes in the day to pore over that before you can make your first call,” Bosman said. “Now with the tool, you’re able to get those insights and make those calls within minutes, as opposed to waiting half an hour.” Some people will still read the actual reports when they have time, he said. “The real need is, we put out so much content and folks on a trade floor are constantly bombarded with news and signals,” Bosman said. “Part of what we do is try to reduce that signal-to-noise ratio, getting the right signals to our sales traders and ultimately out to our clients as quickly as possible.” In the broader picture, this initiative is one of many at TD Bank Group, whose CEO Raymond Chun has set ambitious goals for AI at the firm. “Across TD, we’re deploying the capabilities needed to drive speed, such as AI-powered virtual assistants, AI-enabled adjudication, predictive tools and new applications,” Chun said at a recent investor day. “These new capabilities are already driving strong outcomes. We’re approving mortgages in hours instead of days. We’re pre-approving credit cards with data-driven insights for millions of clients. We’re producing reports in minutes versus hours or days, and we’re responding to clients in just a few seconds, significantly shortening call and wait times.” The bank is aiming to get $1 billion in annual value from AI, half through revenue increases and half through cost savings. TD now has 2,500 data scientists, engineers, data analysts and experts building proprietary platforms and applications. “This is huge,” Chun said. “AI is fast becoming fundamental to business and to client experience.” Elsewhere in TD Securities, Bosman’s team has given software developers coding assistants. “A year ago, folks were saying, we need this, and now seeing it’s being woven into their careers and what they’re doing,” he said.