Subvolts take Bank of America trains 200,000+ employees for AI, blending tech and soft skills. Jun 22, 2026 - Business
- Learn how a major bank scales AI training and fosters workforce adaptability for future roles.
This interview provides a practical, large-scale case study of enterprise AI workforce transformation from a major financial institution.
AI Upskilling at Scale: Bank of America’s Bernard Hampton
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Me, Myself, and AI features Bernard Hampton, head of Bank of America’s Academy, discussing how the bank prepares its 200,000+ employees for an AI future. The episode covers upskilling and reskilling strategies, focusing on workforce agility and a blend of technical and soft skills. Hampton outlines a three-level AI adoption approach and highlights situations where human oversight remains crucial.
This episode explains how a huge bank is teaching its many workers about AI. They focus on making employees flexible and skilled in both technology and people skills. This helps everyone adapt to new AI tools and know when humans should still make the final decision.
This episode offers insights into how a major financial institution tackles large-scale AI workforce transformation. It's for business leaders and HR professionals focused on employee development and AI integration. The strategies discussed, like building workforce agility and combining technical with soft skills, align with current enterprise AI adoption trends seen across frontier labs as they develop more capable systems.
- HostSam Ransbotham
- HostShervin Khodabandeh
- GuestBernard Hamptonhead of The Academy, Bank of America
- Guest: Bernard Hampton, head of The Academy at Bank of America
- Show: Me, Myself, and AI
- Episode Length: 30 minutes
- Employees Supported: Over 200,000
- Key Focus: Workforce agility, technical and soft skills
Today’s episode, the final one of Season 13, explores how Bank of America is preparing a massive global workforce for an AI future through upskilling and reskilling. Bernard Hampton, head of the financial institution’s Academy, explains how the learning and development organization focuses on workforce agility and a building combination of technical and soft skills.
Bernard outlines a three-level approach to adopting artificial intelligence and shares situations in which he feels humans need to stay in the loop. Read the episode transcript here.
Guest bio:
Bernard Hampton leads The Academy, which is responsible for onboarding and upskilling more than 200,000 employees as Bank of America’s chief people organization. The Academy, a team of more than 1,000 dedicated professionals, provides expert facilitation and coaching, compliance education, and immersive technology.
Hampton joined the bank in 2004 and has served in many leadership roles, including as a consumer banking division executive. In addition to serving as the bank’s executive market sponsor for the West Palm Beach market, he is an executive sponsor for multiple employee engagement groups, networks, and development programs including the Intergenerational Employee Network.
Hampton also serves on the global advisory board for Operation Hope, and he is a Herndon Directors Institute fellow and a 2022 inductee to the Executive Leadership Council. He also serves as an executive board member of the Urban League of Palm Beach County.
Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder.
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- Upskilling
- Bernard Hampton
- Teaching employees new, advanced skills for their current jobs.
- Reskilling
- Bernard Hampton
- Teaching employees new skills to do different jobs.
- Workforce agility
- Bernard Hampton
- The ability of employees to adapt quickly to new tasks and technologies.
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Questions people ask
- What is Bank of America's approach to AI adoption?
- Bernard Hampton outlines a three-level approach to adopting artificial intelligence.
- How many employees does Bank of America's Academy support?
- The Academy is responsible for onboarding and upskilling more than 200,000 employees.
Page generated Oct 19, 2026. Summaries are Subvolts' own; the audio, artwork and notes belong to MIT Sloan Management Review.