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Freedom251 › Blog › Artificial Intelligence

Citi CEO Jane Fraser on the next phase of her turnaround: To be the best, Citi has to beat the best

By Freedom251 Team · · 5 min read

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Jane Fraser says Citigroup’s turnaround has entered a new phase. After the most disruptive restructuring work, the bank must now deliver excellence in every business it keeps—and outperform the strongest competitors in those businesses.

“Now what I’ve said to the firm is, if we are going to be the best in the businesses we’re in, we have to beat the best,” Fraser said, describing the standard she is setting for Citi’s next stage.

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What changes in Citi’s next phase

Fraser’s formulation shifts the emphasis from rebuilding Citi’s structure to proving that the resulting company can perform at a leading level. She described the objective as “that mindset of excellence,” rather than another round of broad organizational repair.

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The test is practical: each remaining business has to improve its competitiveness, financial performance and execution while the bank maintains controls appropriate for a highly regulated institution. Citi’s reported best third-quarter revenue in a decade is an encouraging indicator, but the report did not provide a revenue amount, so it does not establish how far the bank has closed its performance gap with rivals.

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What Fraser has changed since becoming CEO

Fraser became Citi’s chief executive in 2021 and has pursued a smaller, simpler operating model. The overhaul has three defining elements.

Five core businesses

Citi has been reorganized around five core businesses. The intent is to reduce complexity, clarify accountability and concentrate capital and management attention on operations the bank intends to keep building.

Fewer management layers

Fraser has cut layers of management as part of the simplification effort. A flatter structure is meant to speed decisions and make responsibility easier to identify, although its success ultimately depends on whether execution and risk oversight improve together.

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Consumer-banking exits outside the United States

Citi has started exiting consumer banking in 14 markets outside the United States. Those exits remove businesses that no longer fit the bank’s strategic priorities and free resources for the core operations that remain. They also make the turnaround visible to customers and employees because market withdrawals involve sales, closures or transfers rather than an internal reorganization alone.

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Planned workforce reduction

Citigroup has targeted 20,000 job cuts, with completion expected before 2027. This is a planned reduction, not a statement that all 20,000 positions have already disappeared. The target is part of the bank’s expense and organizational redesign program, so its effect should be judged by whether Citi becomes more productive and financially stronger—not by the head-count number alone.

How Citi is approaching artificial intelligence

Fraser describes AI as a three-part opportunity for the bank:

  • Earn money: use AI to improve products, advice and other customer-facing activity that can create revenue.
  • Save money: automate or assist work so the bank can operate more efficiently.
  • Secure the bank: apply AI to fraud detection, cyber defense and other protective controls.

This framing matters because it treats AI as both a growth technology and an operating-control technology. It also avoids claiming that every experiment will become a profitable product or an immediate labor substitute.

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A wealth-business AI avatar

Citi is testing an AI avatar for its wealth business, developed with help from Google DeepMind. The avatar demonstrates that the bank has moved beyond general discussion into a customer-oriented deployment experiment. It is evidence of testing, not proof of revenue impact, broad client adoption or replacement of wealth professionals.

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Training 175,000 employees

Citi requires AI training for 175,000 employees, with a focus on writing prompts. Prompt skills can help staff use approved systems more effectively, but training at this scale also signals that Citi expects AI literacy to become a baseline capability across the workforce rather than a niche skill held only by engineers.

Will AI reduce Citi’s headcount?

Fraser has not supplied a forecast. Asked whether AI will shrink Citi’s headcount, she answered, “Honestly, we don’t know yet.” That uncertainty is important because the bank’s separate 20,000-position reduction target should not be presented as an AI job-substitution figure. Citi may use AI to raise output, change roles, reduce future hiring or eliminate some work; the balance has not been established.

What “beat the best” means in practice

Fraser’s standard is broader than announcing a restructuring milestone. Citi will need to show that its simpler organization produces superior results in the businesses it has chosen to operate. The relevant questions include:

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  • Can the five-business structure produce stronger revenue quality and returns?
  • Do the consumer-banking exits and management cuts translate into durable expense improvement?
  • Can Citi deploy AI at meaningful scale and demonstrate measurable productivity or customer value?
  • Does the bank retain specialist talent while reducing roles that no longer fit the model?
  • Can decision-making become faster without weakening model, operational or regulatory controls?

These are outcome measures, not slogans. A smaller organization is not automatically a better one, and a successful pilot is not automatically a business advantage. “Beat the best” requires sustained performance against the strongest relevant competitor in each business, not simply improvement from Citi’s own previous position.

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Speed, trust and cybersecurity

Fraser has paired her demand for faster innovation with an explicit warning about control systems. “We have to move fast and retain trust,” she said. In a bank, trust includes dependable service, protection of customer information, accurate models, resilient operations and compliance with supervisory requirements.

Her risk principle is equally direct: “When you’re innovating at speed, you have to manage risk at the same speed.” That places a condition on AI deployment. New tools need review, monitoring, access controls and escalation processes that can keep pace with their rollout rather than being added after a system is already embedded in workflows.

Why cyber defense is collaborative

Fraser argues that financial institutions should share defensive knowledge because cyber attackers target the sector as a system. “You don’t compete on cyber. You collaborate on cyber,” she said. Collaboration can improve the speed at which banks identify campaigns, exchange indicators and strengthen common defenses, while each institution remains responsible for protecting its own systems and customer data.

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The people challenge in the next phase

Restructuring and AI adoption can create uncertainty even when the strategic case is clear. Fraser said, “I never think people perform well if they’re fearful.” That observation gives the workforce program a performance dimension: employees need clarity about which work is changing, what training is available and how decisions will be made.

The combination of a 20,000-position target and mandatory AI education makes communication especially important. Training 175,000 people can prepare staff for new tools, but it does not by itself explain which roles will expand, shrink or be redesigned. Until Citi reports those effects, the responsible conclusion is that the workforce impact remains an open question.

What to watch next

The next evidence of Fraser’s strategy will come from execution rather than another organizational announcement. Watch whether Citi completes its planned exits and workforce actions before 2027, improves returns and expenses in its five core businesses, and turns AI experiments into controlled, measurable improvements.

Just as important, Citi will need to show that speed has not outrun safeguards. The bank’s stated ambition is not merely to finish a turnaround; it is to become a stronger competitor while preserving trust. Fraser’s “beat the best” phase will be judged by whether those goals arrive together.

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Artificial IntelligenceBankingCitigroupcybersecurityFinancial ServicesJane Fraser

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