Will U.S. Bancorp's AI-Focused Strategy Boost Profitability?

U.S. Bancorp USB is increasingly doubling down on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure as a cornerstone of its long-term growth strategy. The company’s recent moves, ranging from a new AI-powered cash forecasting tool to embedded payments and “agentic” AI exploration, are not just about modernizing technology but also about accelerating client growth, deepening engagement, and expanding revenue opportunities. 

In sync with this, recently, USB has introduced U.S. Bank Liquidity Manager, a new AI-driven cash forecasting and visibility solution developed with Kyriba. Aimed at mid-sized and large enterprises, the tool integrates traditional forecasting methods with advanced AI to help treasurers improve accuracy, automate daily cash positioning, and manage liquidity across multiple accounts, entities, and currencies.

The feature set includes Cash AI, which predicts future cash flows through historical trend analysis, adapts forecasts as new data emerges, and supports scenario planning. Treasurers can also reduce operational costs through automated workflows and a centralized reporting environment designed to minimize manual file handling across disparate banking portals.

This rollout follows the October 2025 launch of the next-generation SinglePoint experience, which delivers more automation, enhanced dashboards, and smoother workflows for daily treasury tasks.

In June 2025, it expanded its Embedded Payment Solutions. The update added an enhanced for-benefit-of (FBO) solution and real-time payments, enabling businesses to embed secure, automated transactions that improve liquidity, onboarding, and fund tracking. The same month, U.S. Bancorp entered a partnership with Fiserv to integrate its Elan Financial Services credit card program into Fiserv’s Credit Choice solution. The collaboration aims to enhance digital card issuance capabilities, providing financial institutions with a seamless, integrated experience.

These efforts are expected to boost U.S. Bank's profitability by reducing operational costs, increasing revenue through enhanced customer insights and product offerings, improving forecasting and cash management accuracy, and raising overall productivity, all contributing to a stronger competitive positioning and improved financial performance. For 2025, the company anticipates witnessing positive operating leverage of more than 200 basis points.

How Do Other Finance Firms Stand on Digital/AI Innovation?

Like U.S. Bancorp, Citigroup Inc. C and Bank of America BAC are advancing AI-driven innovations to modernize treasury workflows, enhance forecasting accuracy, and improve digital customer experiences.

Citigroup is accelerating its AI and digital-asset strategy through several initiatives launched in 2025. In October 2025, C deepened its focus on digital assets by partnering with Coinbase to develop institutional digital-asset payment capabilities, initially targeting streamlined fiat pay-ins, pay-outs, and payments orchestration across global on/off-ramps.

Earlier, in July 2025, Citigroup and Ant International piloted an AI-enabled FX forecasting solution using the Falcon Time-Series Transformer Model, helping airline clients improve FX exposure forecasting and reduce hedging costs. Collectively, these developments reinforce Citigroup’s push toward AI forecasting, digital-asset interoperability, and always-on treasury solutions.

Bank of America is also scaling AI across its global platforms. In October 2025, the bank reported record usage of its AI-powered CashPro Chat and CashPro Search tools, with corporate clients increasingly relying on automated insights and real-time transaction visibility to improve treasury decisions. In addition, the company continues to expand the reach of Erica, its enterprise-wide AI virtual assistant, which supports millions of users across banking, wealth, and employee channels and remains central to its broader digital strategy.

Earlier, in January 2024, the bank launched CashPro Insights, a data-intelligence tool that helps clients optimize working capital, liquidity, and security controls. Together, these initiatives demonstrate Bank of America’s ongoing progress in expanding AI-driven treasury capabilities and digital customer solutions.

USB’s Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Shares of USB have gained 2.5% in the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 7.3%.

At present, USB carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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