Wednesday April 23, 2025 | TORONTO, ON
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The TD Bank Group (TD) has announced that is will open a new Layer 6 office in New York City.
TD says that “AI continues to transform how businesses operate,” in a statement released on Earth Day April 22.
Their new AI research and development centre “will power enhanced customer experiences for US customers and colleagues”, says the TD Bank Group.
“As TD’s AI research and development center, Layer 6 has driven TD’s ability to deploy advanced Machine Learning solutions since it was acquired by TD in 2018,” it was stated in Tuesday’s news release.
Shifting from Toronto to NYC:
“Currently operating from its head office in Toronto’s MARS Innovation District, the new Layer 6 office will now grow to more closely support TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, as well as TD’s other U.S. based operations.”
Layer 6, acquired by TD in 2018, has been instrumental in deploying machine learning solutions from its Toronto headquarters.
“It will also allow TD to take advantage of an expanded pool of world-class talent and further cement its leadership and competitive advantage driving innovation in banking through AI. The Layer 6 office will formally open later in 2025 with a mixture of an initial 20 data scientists, applied machine learning scientists, GenAI implementation specialists, and others, who will sit at TD’s New York office, One Vanderbilt.”
The new office, located at One Vanderbilt, will initially staff 20 data scientists, machine learning experts, and AI implementation specialists. It is set to formally open later in 2025, marking a significant investment in innovation and AI capabilities for the bank, which has maintained dividend payments for an impressive 53 consecutive years.
In a broader political context this is a high profile example of how business is intertwined between Canada and the US, with evidence of US dominance.
The expansion into New York will leverage local talent and support TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, and its other U.S. businesses.
Investing in the future of innovation:
“Our U.S. expansion of Layer 6 underscores our commitment to deepening our presence in New York City and investing in the future of innovation,” said Leo Salom, President and CEO of TD Bank.
“The new Layer 6 office establishes a strong foundation for advancing our GenAI capabilities and bringing critical expertise and delivery in-house. It represents an exciting step forward for TD, our colleagues, our customers, and the communities we serve. We look forward to growing this operation to support increasing business demand across the U.S.”
Looking to AI for personalization:
Somehow through advanced technology, the bank aims to deliver the personal touch, in saying in their news release:
“TD continues to deploy and scale AI technology to meet both growing customer expectations for personalization, and the business’s need to streamline process execution.”
Innovation for customers:
“Our commitment to being a leader in the AI space puts TD at the forefront of banking innovation, and Layer 6 is critical to our ability to deliver that innovation for our customers,” said Luke Gee, Chief Analytics & AI Officer at TD.
“With recent advances in areas like Generative AI, we continue to leverage the potential of this game-changing technology through the work of colleagues across the Bank, with Layer 6 continually driving thought leadership and breaking new ground. We are excited to announce the next major step in this journey.”
The trend in AI for banking:
“Generative AI is transforming financial services, offering opportunities for efficiency and innovation. As banks race to deploy gen AI, the right operating model can help unlock its potential” is a description on the AI banking trend as posted by McKinsey and Company in March 2024.
“Generative AI (gen AI) is revolutionizing the banking industry as financial institutions use the technology to supercharge customer-facing chatbots, prevent fraud, and speed up time-consuming tasks such as developing code, preparing drafts of pitch books, and summarizing regulatory reports,” says the McKinsey report.
They highlight that banks can capture the full value of gen AI. Achieving sustained value, beyond initial proofs of concept, requires strong capabilities across seven dimensions:
- strategic road map
- talent
- operating model
- technology
- data
- risk and controls
- adoption and change management
Big brother, big tech:
Centralization is the key to finance AI, according to McKinsey:
“We have found that across industries, a high degree of centralization works best for gen AI operating models. Without central oversight, pilot use cases can get stuck in silos and scaling becomes much more difficult.”
They observe in the financial-services industry that financial institutions using a centrally led gen AI operating model are reaping the biggest rewards. As the technology matures, the pendulum will likely swing toward a more federated approach, but so far, centralization has brought the best results.
“A central team can stay on top of the evolving gen AI landscape better than several teams dispersed across an organization.”
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NEWS SECTIONS: BANKING & FINANCE | DIGITAL TECH | CANADA-USA