Citi is revolutionizing enterprise AI adoption through an innovative peer-to-peer program that has mobilized approximately 4,000 employees as voluntary AI helpers across its global operations. Launched in early 2024, the AI Champions and Accelerators program represents a grassroots approach to technology transformation at one of Wall Street’s largest banks.
The initiative features two tiers of AI advocates: roughly 25-30 “champions” who lead efforts within their business lines, and thousands of “accelerators” who provide hands-on assistance to colleagues in understanding and leveraging AI tools. Unlike traditional top-down technology rollouts, this program embeds AI expertise directly within teams, enabling peer-to-peer learning and support.
The results have been impressive. Citi’s AI tools are now available to 182,000 employees across 84 countries, with adoption rates exceeding 70% for the bank’s proprietary AI solutions, according to CEO Jane Fraser during the company’s recent earnings call. The program has exceeded initial expectations, originally planning for 2,500 accelerators but expanding to 4,000 due to overwhelming interest, with a waitlist still active.
Carey Ryan, chief of staff for Citi’s technology organization and one of the program’s leaders, emphasized that “a small central team would never be able to reach where we are now.” The peer-to-peer model allows accelerators to understand job-specific AI use cases that general tech teams might miss. Accelerators have hosted over 100 Citi AI Days, conducting demonstrations and answering questions.
Josh Goldsmith, AI champion for internal audit and head of digital solutions and innovation, highlighted that “demystifying AI” has been among the program’s greatest successes. He noted that hearing from colleagues about AI applications is more effective than having technologists push the tools.
Participants meet twice monthly for demos, training, and discussions, with champions like Goldsmith dedicating three to five hours weekly to the program. The initiative also offers optional training on topics like agentic AI, with participants earning visual “AI badges” for their email signatures. Retention remains strong, with 70-80% of participants in internal audit staying active in the program despite the additional time commitment.
Key Quotes
A small central team would never be able to reach where we are now.
Carey Ryan, chief of staff for Citi’s technology organization and program leader, explained why the distributed peer-to-peer model has been essential to achieving scale. This highlights the limitations of traditional centralized tech rollouts and validates the grassroots approach to AI adoption.
It’s a lot different when you hear from a colleague as to how you can leverage these tools, as opposed to having someone who’s, let’s say, a technologist trying to push this.
Josh Goldsmith, AI champion for internal audit, emphasized the power of peer learning in demystifying AI. This quote captures why the program succeeds where traditional training often fails—colleagues relate better to peers than to technical experts.
I expected ‘a more disciplined, more confident’ workforce in 2026, and that AI will likely ‘reshape how work gets done.’
CEO Jane Fraser set clear expectations in a January memo to staff, signaling that AI proficiency is not optional but essential for Citi’s future. This executive mandate provides top-down support for the bottom-up Champions program.
Our Take
Citi’s approach reveals a sophisticated understanding of organizational change management in the AI era. The bank recognizes that technology adoption is fundamentally a people problem, not a technical one. By mobilizing 4,000 voluntary advocates, Citi has created an internal AI culture that scales organically rather than through mandate.
What’s particularly noteworthy is the bidirectional feedback loop: accelerators don’t just teach—they report back on pain points and suggest improvements, like adding notifications and larger file uploads. This creates a continuous improvement cycle that keeps AI tools aligned with actual user needs.
The program’s success also highlights a critical trend: AI literacy is becoming a competitive advantage for individual employees. The waitlist and high retention rates suggest workers recognize that AI skills enhance their career prospects. For other enterprises, Citi’s model demonstrates that investing in grassroots AI education can drive adoption rates that centralized initiatives rarely achieve.
Why This Matters
Citi’s AI Champions program represents a critical shift in how large enterprises approach AI transformation. Rather than relying solely on centralized tech teams, the bank has created a distributed network of AI advocates embedded within business units—a model that could become the blueprint for enterprise AI adoption across industries.
The 70% adoption rate demonstrates that peer-to-peer learning can overcome traditional resistance to new technology. This matters because AI implementation often fails not due to technical limitations, but because of human factors: fear, misunderstanding, and lack of practical guidance. By having colleagues teach colleagues, Citi addresses these barriers at scale.
For the broader financial services industry, this approach signals that AI literacy must become universal, not confined to specialized teams. CEO Jane Fraser’s expectation of “a more disciplined, more confident” workforce where AI “reshapes how work gets done” reflects the reality that AI proficiency is becoming a baseline job requirement. The program’s success—exceeding initial targets and maintaining waitlists—suggests strong employee appetite for AI skills, which has implications for workforce development, competitive advantage, and the future of banking operations globally.
Related Stories
- Goldman Sachs Hires Google’s Melissa Goldman as Tech Head for AI Push
- PwC Hosts ‘Prompting Parties’ to Train Employees on AI Usage
- JPMorgan Replaces Proxy Advisors with AI Platform for Voting
- Business Leaders Share Top 3 AI Workforce Predictions for 2025
- The Future of Work in an AI World
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-bank-ai-accelerators-volunteers-2025-12