- What does your team do within your organization?
Home to the nation’s largest all-digital bank, we’re building the future of banking. As the world shifts toward more personalized experiences, banking is no exception. Ally has a long track record of innovation, continuously looking for ways to disrupt the industry and create extraordinary customer experiences. Technology is at the center of everything we do, and our leading digital experiences support our 90% customer satisfaction rate.
We believe innovation happens at the intersection of three things: a differentiated customer experience, creating business impact and using right-fit contemporary technology. Our Technology team is structured to steer that strategic roadmap – from business applications, operations and infrastructure to security and customer experience. We also leverage our in-house technology lab to explore new and emerging technologies – like AI – to accelerate adoption, develop use cases and help our organization “see around corners.”
Our Enterprise Data and Analytics team, within Technology, leads Ally’s exploration and adoption of AI. It is responsible for developing and maintaining Ally’s data and analytics platforms, including our proprietary Ally.ai platform. The team partners cross-functionally to come up with ML and generative AI use case ideas, conduct experiments, and deliver the successful ones to production.
- What do you think are the biggest challenges your organization faces related to integrating AI into your business?
Given that AI relies heavily on the data it processes, we carefully manage challenges and risks concerning the broader use of data. To address these, we’ve implemented processes designed to ensure strong data security, robust customer privacy, rigorous model risk review before deployment, and continuous monitoring of outcomes. Additionally, we prioritize human involvement in decision-making. Importantly, we integrate our risk and control requirements from the outset in all our data and AI projects, embedding controls in parallel to building solutions, rather than treating them as an afterthought. We take pride in Ally being the first U.S. bank to join the Responsible AI Institute, underscoring our dedication to adopting AI technology responsibly.
- Why must organizations prioritize responsible AI governance and systems in their business?
At Ally, earning and keeping our customers’ trust is paramount. For us, AI governance is not just a regulatory obligation but a foundational component of how we endeavor to ensure Ally’s responsible use of AI. We want to take advantage of the benefits AI can offer, such as process efficiencies that can help us improve customer experiences, while carefully managing its risks. Our AI governance process, established from the start, unites experts across the company to identify risks, implement controls, and monitor outcomes. This is designed to help us maintain transparency, fairness, and accountability in all our AI initiatives, ultimately fostering trust and delivering value to our customers.
- What’s a lesson you’ve learned that has shaped your work in responsible AI? Why is this work important to you?
Ally’s “do it right” mantra guides our technology roadmap as we build the future of banking. We believe AI is one of the largest tech transformations of our lifetime and has incredible potential to help employees and customers. But we’ve observed many stories of other companies experiencing bad outcomes with AI, which reinforces for us the need to take a disciplined and responsible approach.
At Ally, we have teams of talented and highly experienced people who collaborate toward the same goal – doing it right with AI. Internally, we prepare teammates to use AI responsibly by offering an AI playbook, short courses to increase AI fluency, an internal user community and educational AI days open to the entire enterprise. So, whether it’s our innovative code to protect personally identifiable information (PII) that is now used as an example for developers worldwide – even beyond our industry, or how we support our teammates as they explore Gen AI within our governance structure and process, we are demonstrating our commitment to adopting this technology responsibly.
About the Responsible AI Institute
Since 2016, the Responsible AI Institute has been at the forefront of advancing responsible AI adoption across industries. As a non-profit organization, RAI Institute partners with policymakers, industry leaders, and technology providers to develop responsible AI benchmarks, governance frameworks, and best practices. With the launch of RAISE AI Pathways, RAI Institute equips organizations with expert-led training, real-time assessments, and implementation toolkits to strengthen AI governance, enhance transparency, and drive innovation at scale.
Members include leading companies such as Boston Consulting Group, AMD, KPMG, Chevron, Ally, Mastercard and many others dedicated to bringing responsible AI to all industry sectors.
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Nicole McCaffrey
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+1 (440) 785-3588
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