Bank of America adds 1,000 contractors to address AI-identified software flaws

Bank of America engaged an additional 1,000 contractors to support its existing 3,000-person software remediation unit after an AI system exposed numerous code weaknesses. CEO Brian Moynihan described the hiring as a temporary measure to accelerate patching across both the bank's own applications and those supplied by vendors. He indicated that remediation spending should decline as the backlog is cleared.

The AI model, made available by Anthropic, initially limited access to a select group of banks, including BofA, and prompted a rapid industry-wide effort to fix vulnerabilities that had previously been deferred. The bank also disclosed significant spending on anti-money-laundering compliance following a $1.2 billion penalty from the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Shares fell sharply after the announcement.