Erica just turned 8. Bank of America's Jorge Camargo breaks down how 3 billion-plus interactions reshaped digital banking — and why "average" customers don't exist.

Jorge Camargo, head of Digital Platforms at Bank of America, joins CX Decoded to discuss the eight-year evolution of Erica, the bank's AI assistant — covering scale, personalization, compliance and what's next as generative AI reshapes client expectations.

Host

Guest

Dom Nicastro

Dom Nicastro is editor-in-chief of CMSWire and an award-winning journalist with a passion for technology, customer experience and marketing.

Jorge Camargo

Jorge Camargo is Head of Digital Platforms at Bank of America, where he leads the product team behind Erica, the bank's AI-powered virtual assistant.

Inside Our Conversation

Billions of Interactions, One Persistent Question
90,000 Improvements and Counting
No Such Thing as an Average Customer
Compliance in the Room From Day One
What Matters Here

The Gist

Erica just turned 8. Bank of America's AI assistant has logged more than 3.2 billion interactions since its 2018 launch, with roughly 40 million clients using it.
Nearly 100,000 tweaks and counting. Bank of America's data science team has made close to 90,000 improvements to Erica since launch — everything from fixing typos to rebuilding entire journeys.
There's no "average" customer. Jorge Camargo says Bank of America designs for individual personalization rather than a one-size-fits-all client profile.
Compliance sits at the table from day one. Legal, risk and regulatory partners co-design Erica's capabilities from the start rather than signing off at the end.
Digital is now 94% of the relationship. Camargo says the vast majority of client touch points with the bank happen digitally, with branches and calls making up the rest.

Bank of America's AI assistant Erica just turned 8 — and according to Jorge Camargo, Head of Digital Platforms at Bank of America, that's closer to a decade of institutional muscle memory than a flashy new chatbot launch.

"It's been probably 10 years since we started first conceiving of and developing Erica for the first time," Camargo told me on the latest episode of The Digital Experience. Erica launched in 2018, years before generative AI and ChatGPT turned every brand's attention toward conversational assistants.

Billions of Interactions, One Persistent Question

The numbers are large by any measure: roughly 40 million clients have used Erica, generating more than 3.2 billion interactions — about 2 million per day, according to Camargo. But the bank's real focus, he said, has shifted from answering questions to anticipating them.

"Erica's great. When I have a question, I want to come to Erica, here's my question, here's my answer, I'm done," Camargo said, describing early client feedback. "But I actually want Erica to start reading my mind ... tell me something that I don't know."

That shift has pushed investment toward proactive and preemptive features — surfacing patterns, unused benefits and financial insights before a client asks.

90,000 Improvements and Counting

Behind Erica's front end is a heavily operationalized improvement cycle. Camargo said Bank of America's data science team has made close to 90,000 changes to Erica since launch — from typo corrections to full journey redesigns — averaging roughly 30 updates a year in a highly regulated environment.

That infrastructure paid off during moments of crisis. "First COVID and then a few years later the California wildfires, we were able to really adjust Erica very quickly," Camargo said, pointing clients toward existing bank resources like its Client Assistance Program without building net-new capabilities from scratch.

No Such Thing as an Average Customer

Designing for Bank of America's more than 60 million clients means resisting the urge to design for the middle, Camargo said. He pointed to a story about a 1950s Air Force lieutenant, Gilbert Daniels, who found that cockpits built to the "average" pilot's measurements fit zero actual pilots.

"There is no such thing as an average customer," Camargo said. "We always have to build in the customizations."

That plays out through a "high tech, high touch" model — quick, self-service digital experience transactions paired with an easy off-ramp to a human when a decision gets more complex, like after a loved one's death or a financial windfall.

Compliance in the Room From Day One

In a heavily regulated industry, Camargo said legal, risk and compliance partners aren't brought in at the end of a project — they help shape it from the start. "Your most successful compliance partners and business risk controls partners are there co-designing with you from day one," he said, describing that approach as core to Erica's development since its earliest days.

What Matters Here

Camargo said Bank of America's digital touch points now account for roughly 94% of all client interactions with the bank, dwarfing branch visits, ATM stops and phone calls combined. Looking ahead, he said the team's focus remains twofold: making Erica smarter and extending its reach into more products and surfaces — all while keeping the human off-ramp close at hand.