Although a lot of bank C-suites are interested in artificial intelligence’s capabilities, most lack any expertise in it. Northwest Bank may be an exception.
Bank Director’s 2026 Compensation and Talent Survey found that 69% of CEOs, chairs and outside directors identify AI expertise as the biggest capability currently missing from their C-suites, with another 33% indicating digital transformation skills also are lacking.
But Northwest Bank, a subsidiary of $16.9 billion Northwest Bancshares, based in Columbus, Ohio, started getting ahead of that issue more than two years ago, adding four executives who bring experience in either digital transformation, AI or both.
The bank’s first move in that direction came in June 2024 when it named Urich Bowers its chief consumer banking and strategy officer.
After a nearly 25-year career at The PNC Financial Services Group, based in Pittsburgh, Bowers accepted the challenge of spearheading Northwest’s full retail banking transformation. “We started with some of the foundational pieces around how we operate in our facilities, using more of a hospitality-led approach to our customers,” Bowers says. “And we’re kind of getting into the phase now where we’re actually looking to build out new products and enhance our digital experience.”
Bowers’ digital transformation experience helped to set him apart from other job candidates. In his most recent role at PNC, he led and contributed to several digital solutions, including a digital high yield savings product and Low Cash Mode®, an overdraft tool that helps customers manage cash shortfalls for which he earned multiple patents.
Since hiring Bowers, Northwest Bank has also added a new chief data officer, a chief information officer (CIO) and an executive director of customer experience, design and innovation. All three of those professionals now sit on the bank’s AI working group together.
Priority Levels Vary
While banks report the need for such expertise, only 29% of the bank leaders surveyed indicated they would recruit or develop staff with new AI or automation skill sets anywhere in the bank in 2026.
Sean O’Neal, a partner with the executive search firm Chartwell Partners, which sponsored the survey, says that figure likely more accurately represents the actual willingness of banks to make hires based on AI or automation skills. He says there is a difference between 69% of CEOs, board chairs and outside board directors offering their own answers on the type of expertise their bank needs and a board leadership group cohesively making that same determination.
“I think that before the C-suite goes and develops a bunch of AI expertise, they need to make sure that the board that represents ownership knows this and is on board,” O’Neal says. “Otherwise, if they don’t support it, and then the CEO doesn’t eventually have the capital and the appetite and the risk tolerance to support a lot of change, it’s a big waste of money and time.”
O’Neal says the community banks he recruits for typically only identify a need for such expertise when trying to fill CIO or CTO roles. But there has been an uptick over the past few years in more banks hiring for CIO roles specifically, says Alan Kaplan, founder and CEO of the executive search firm Kaplan Partners. He believes CEOs have realized they need someone other than a legacy IT professional to drive AI innovation.
“I would draw the distinction that the CIO role is the forward-thinking, data-driven, AI-fluent leader. The chief technology officer tends to be a little more concerned with software, what apps we are using, et cetera,” Kaplan says.
There are also problems finding technology expertise within the banking sector. While Bowers and several of his recently hired colleagues are products of the industry, he feels banks too often take an approach to hiring that is far from tech-forward. “Your mid-size banks are going to the banks a little bit larger and then going down one level for the lieutenant to come in and be the leader,” he says.
But the well of industry talent is often not deep enough to easily fill technological transformation and AI leadership roles, O’Neal says. “The projects that we get engaged on are a direct reflection of what banks are perceiving as their most important need in the leadership team,” he says. “Those are generally an inverse reflection of the available talent in an industry.”
Hiring Outside Tech Talent
So, for one of his most recent hires, Bowers went outside of the box and brought in someone who had never worked in banking. Lizzie Siegel became Northwest Bank’s executive director of customer experience, design and innovation. She was ready for a change after spending the previous seven years working in customer product development at the tech giant Google.
“I think tech is in an interesting place right now where the industry itself is experiencing a lot of layoffs,” Siegel says. “And I think morale at these big tech firms, and career opportunities, have not been what they were when I joined Google.”
Since starting at Northwest Bank in February, Siegel has begun developing new customer-facing products, built out a future product roadmap and created both internal and external research councils to review products before they launch. “Where at these large tech companies you are focused very specifically on one area, here I get to help bring that thought and thinking to all different product lines and experiences across the bank — and it has been thrilling,” she says.
Bowers says he often finds people new to banking have a similar reaction. “They’re a lot shinier here than when they may have been somewhere else because they [have] a unique way of thinking, so, everyone gravitates to them,” he says. “That makes them feel empowered.”
While thinking outside the box works for Northwest Bank, O’Neal would advise most banks to use caution when considering bringing in talent from tech firms or other more entrepreneurial industries. “Banks are highly regulated,” he says. “These are not [always] environments that are ultra-friendly to a new perspective.”
Kaplan says he hasn’t seen many banks turning to large tech firms for talent, but he does see them willing to look for talent at fintech firms in the banking space.
O’Neal also believes that expanding tech knowledge doesn’t have to come solely through hiring. He says education for current C-suite leaders is a realistic option. “You can go learn anything now, ironically, with the help of AI,” he says.
Whether that knowledge is added through industry hires, outside hires or staff education, O’Neal and Bowers agree the banks that leverage AI in the C-suite will have a leg up on the competition. “I think we’re getting to a point now where it is table stakes — from having the capability to having the talent that can build it,” Bowers says.
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