Deutsche Bank said artificial intelligence is helping its technology teams complete internal projects much faster, with some work that once took years now being finished within months.
Denis Roux, chief information officer for the German lender’s investment bank, told Reuters that the gains are visible across parts of Deutsche Bank’s technology operations, though he declined to quantify the impact.
“We’re seeing things that were two years that are now getting done in three to six months… we know the productivity is there,” Roux said at Deutsche Bank’s Bank on Tech event in Bengaluru, India.
The bank is using AI to shorten development cycles, reduce internal backlogs and support engineers handling complex technology work. Roux said some queues that previously took months to clear are now being completed in weeks.
“All I’m hoping to do is use these tools to continue to make things more efficient,” he said.
The lender is also using AI to process financial information and flag how market or geopolitical events could shape the bank’s exposure.
Token limits bring discipline to AI use
Roux said cost control is a major focus as AI providers move toward usage-based pricing models built around tokens.
Deutsche Bank gives engineers token limits and allows them to request more capacity, but additional use must show business value.
“We monitor the usage patterns… we don’t want to slow people down and want them to keep going, but we also want to get a return,” Roux said.
The bank is not applying AI everywhere, with Roux saying Deutsche Bank still uses simpler models for routine work and weighs cases where older technology may be more effective.
Banks turn AI into a productivity tool
Deutsche Bank’s comments reflect a broader shift across major financial firms, which are now using AI to speed up technology work, research and client-service tasks rather than treating it as a distant experiment.
JPMorgan has said its payments technology teams are using AI-powered developer tools, including code-review systems and large language models, to streamline software workflows and improve development cycles.
Bank of America has also pointed to AI as a productivity driver for bankers, saying the technology is helping staff cover more clients and support revenue growth.
Morgan Stanley has taken a similar path in wealth management, rolling out an OpenAI-powered assistant that can draft meeting notes, surface follow-up actions and prepare client emails for advisers to review.
For Deutsche Bank, the next test is whether those gains can be scaled without allowing AI costs or unnecessary complexity to reduce the payoff.
