Customers Bank CEO Sam Sidhu uses his voice clone in quarterly earnings call

During Customers Bank’s recent first‑quarter earnings call, CEO Sam Sidhu surprised analysts with a twist, about half an hour into the session, he disclosed that the opening remarks hadn’t been spoken by him at all, but by an AI-generated replica of his voice, as per news source.

“The prepared remarks you heard on my behalf today were delivered by my AI clone, not read by me,” Sidhu said.

Sidhu later clarified that deploying an AI-generated voice wasn’t merely a showcase—it was meant to highlight a larger shift taking place at Customers Bank. The institution, which serves startups and small businesses, is increasingly embracing artificial intelligence to streamline essential operations and boost efficiency.

Customers Bank has reportedly entered into a multiyear partnership with OpenAI, under which the AI firm will embed engineers within the $25.9 billion asset lender to help automate lending, client onboarding, and payments.

The initiative is part of CEO Sam Sidhu’s broader push to stay ahead in the banking sector’s race toward AI-driven transformation. At the core of this strategy is the use of AI agents as a digital workforce to streamline operations such as reducing loan processing timelines from weeks to days and enabling scalable growth without a proportional increase in headcount.

As per Sidhu, the initiative will help to increase the bank’s efficiency ratio from around 49% to the low 40s, while also enhancing returns starting next year. He described the partnership as symbiotic, noting that OpenAI will gain access to real-world use cases within a regulated financial environment. In turn, both organizations will co-develop enterprise AI solutions that could eventually be extended to other banks.

Sidhu said that the “goal here is end-to-end, automated agentic led workflow” for lending, deposits and payments.

OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser told the news source that the company was proud to help Customers Bank “as they build a more intelligent operating model that empowers employees, strengthens client service, and sets a new standard for regional banking,”

Customers Bank plans to deploy these AI agents across lending, deposits, and payments over the next six to 12 months. Designed as always-on digital workers, these agents can continuously execute tasks without interruption.

If successful, the time required to close a commercial loan, including underwriting, document collection, and legal processes, could shrink from up to 45 days to roughly seven days. Similarly, onboarding complex commercial clients may be reduced from more than a day to under 20 minutes through conversational AI and automated documentation.

“When you have an autonomous agent, you’re essentially creating a digital worker … and they can work around the clock,” Sidhu said.

The bank is also already using AI to write half of its software code, a move that has saved 28,000 hours of work so far, effectively offsetting the need to hire about 15 full-time employees.

“This is an opportunity for us to potentially slow that hiring … and do more revenue per employee,” Sidhu said.