Wells Fargo has hired Amazon Web Services alum Faraz Shafiq to lead its artificial intelligence products and services arm, the bank said Monday.
Shafiq will take his post Feb. 9 and report directly to Wells’ head of AI, Saul Van Beurden. Shafiq has spent the past six years leading AI innovation at AWS and, over his career, has also held executive roles at Verizon and health tech firm Cambia, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“Hiring top talent is a critical factor to expand AI faster with higher impact,” Van Beurden said in a prepared statement. “Faraz’s deep expertise in generative and agentic AI and proven leadership in scaling enterprise platforms, will accelerate the execution of our strategy of using AI to transform how we work and how we serve our customers, and ultimately propel the growth of the bank.”
Van Beurden, who joined Wells six years ago, was tapped in November to scale AI at the bank. As lenders chase and implement AI-related efficiencies, several executives recently acknowledged they expect overall headcounts to dip this year. But banks are also appointing people to focus solely on the possibilities of the fast-growing technology.
BNP Paribas, for example, recently named Charles Holive, a former managing director at JPMorgan Chase, as its corporate and investment bank’s AI chief. Holive had been working as senior vice president of AI solutions and platforms at PepsiCo. He announced his move to BNP Paribas in a LinkedIn post Jan. 22.
“In today’s financial sector, technology is a key foundation for operating at the scale, speed, and quality our clients expect,” Holive wrote on LinkedIn. “My focus will be on harnessing AI as a sustainable engine of value creation, developing trustworthy solutions, and contributing to further advance CIB’s AI culture and proficiency.”
BNP Paribas did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Other recent high-level AI moves include Citi appointing former IBM executive Shobhit Varshney as its head of AI in September. Truist named Microsoft alum Pascal Belaud its chief AI and data officer, a newly created role, in November. Commonwealth Bank of Australia named Ranil Boteju, chief data and analytics officer at London-based Lloyds Bank, its chief AI officer in December.
