In a special Tech Talks Business session that took place as part of the 2025 Artificial Intelligence and Future of Finance Conference, Dean Anuj Mehrotra welcomed Bill Rogers chairman and CEO of Truist.
Mehrotra and Rogers began this special keynote discussion by laying the groundwork for Truist’s reach and mission. Truist is the seventh largest bank in the country, serving clients in a number of high-growth markets offering a wide range of financial services to small to multi-national businesses as well as consumers and wealth clients.
Rogers shared Truist’s mission as “a merger vehicle built on purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities.” This foundational purpose undergirds Truist’s focus, guiding teammates’ daily work and Rogers’ 40 plus years at the company.
A Lifetime Career With Purpose
Rogers’ career began at Truist in 1980 with work in corporate and commercial banking. “My entire professional career has been at Truist. I’ve been lucky to have seven or eight careers in one company,” Rogers said. “I’m not the only one. There are a lot of multi-tenured teammates at Truist who are drawn to our purpose and values.”
Truist Values Happiness
Values guide Truist’s work. Mehrotra asked Rogers how happiness, one of Truist’s core values, is really at the forefront of what they do.
"I love working for a company that values happiness,” Rogers shared. “We even have a 'happiness conference room’ that sits next to my office, which is a great conversation starter. During Covid, I took Harvard's happiness course to understand the science of happiness. The biggest discovery for me was that the highest correlation to happiness is doing purposeful work. People who do purposeful work are the happiest because they understand the difference they are making."
Better Lives with Augmented Intelligence
Truist has re-purposed the acronym A.I. to bring its meaning closer to how they see it playing out in the daily work of a financial institution. “We think words are very important,” Rogers said. “We like to use ‘augmented intelligence’ versus ‘artificial intelligence.’ How does AI help us do our work? How does it help our lives and communities? How does it augment our purpose? We will always focus on the aspects of AI that help make things better for our clients, communities, and teammates.”
Offensive and Defensive Investments in AI
Mehrotra recognized Truist’s presence at many Atlanta sporting events. He then connected athletics to the necessary offensive and defensive strategic approaches financial institutions must enable when adopting AI into their businesses.
Using the sports analogy, Rogers stated that Truist’s defensive strategies are hard at work protecting clients. “We use AI technology to protect our clients. As we understand certain sequences and patterns that signal fraud, we can shut things off quickly if we see anything suspicious.”
Offensive AI technologies are expanding at Truist. Rogers pointed to the last 24 months at Truist where the company ensured that the right frameworks are in place to mitigate risk, approve the right projects, and invest with integrity.
“I spent yesterday listening to our care center calls,” Rogers said. “There’s no way these teammates can know all the answers, but with AI they can get to the answers and solutions for our clients more quickly and accurately.”
Question and Answer
The session wrapped up with eager attendees asking questions focused on financial inclusion. The discussion highlighted the importance of combining traditional banking services with modern technological advancements to better serve consumers.
“Today’s consumer wants access to a physical branch and the new efficiencies that AI technology offers,” Rogers said. “The goal is to expand access. We do that by getting more people financially competent where they are looking to save and invest. When we get more people in the system, we get more people benefitting from financial literacy.”
Built into the “T” in Truist is the concept of Touch + Technology = Trust. Touch encourages Truist to create a high level of care from the digital experience, including explicitly offered privacy options for clients.
“Can trust be digitized?” asked Rogers. “We always want to be at the intersection of all three ‘T’s’ so that we provide clients with personalized, effective, and efficient interactions with Truist. Technology must be augmented to facilitate the seamless integration of all three components. Touch, technology, and trust must work together, not separately.”
Watch the full event:
