AI is everywhere, that’s no longer a secret. But few legacy financial institutions are putting it to work at scale.
In this episode of The Speed of Culture, recorded live at CES in Las Vegas, Matt Britton sits down with Michael Lacorazza, chief marketing officer at U.S. Bank. Michael shares how U.S. Bank is operationalizing AI across synthetic audiences, personalization, CRM intelligence, and product bundling to drive measurable growth.
The conversation explores balancing innovation with risk, building cross-functional buy-in, the cultural power of sports, and why understanding the P&L is the ultimate unlock for modern marketing leaders.
From cutting campaign development timelines in half using synthetic audiences to generating tens of millions of dollars through personalization, the bank is embedding AI directly into its growth strategy.
But technology alone isn’t the story. The real differentiator lies in trust, cross-functional alignment, cultural relevance, and a relentless focus on business fundamentals.
In the AI-saturated landscape, U.S. Bank is striving to move away from running behind AI as hype and towards leveraging it to uncover insights, quickly and reliably, and create products, services, and bundles to cater to those insights.
Prior to U.S. Bank, Michael spent nearly a decade at Wells Fargo and served as CEO of a consumer technology company. His career spans automotive (Lexus and Toyota), hospitality (Marriott), agency leadership, real estate, and financial services.
This cross-industry experience has shaped his business-first approach to marketing: one grounded in not just data but also creativity, and most importantly, fluency in how the P&L works.
Key takeaways:
[00:02:34] Synthetic audiences cut campaign timelines in half — U.S. Bank used AI-powered synthetic audiences during the development of its 2024 brand campaign, The Power of Us. After running parallel human validation testing, the team found a roughly 95% correlation in results. The impact? Campaign development time was reduced from six and a half months to roughly half that. For Michael, as a consequence, synthetic audiences are accelerating insight and speed to market.
[00:03:41] The real unlock of AI Is growth, not cost savings — While automation efficiencies are obvious, Michael emphasizes that the bigger opportunity lies in growth. U.S. Bank feeds behavioral data into its CRM so when customers encounter friction digitally and call the contact center, representatives already have context. Faster problem resolution drives satisfaction which in turn drives loyalty. Loyalty ultimately drives measurable economic upside.
[00:05:00] Personalization is already delivering tens of millions in value — With permissioned, transparent data and high customer expectations, U.S. Bank personalizes advice, offers, and product recommendations at scale. The impact is already in the tens of millions of dollars. The differentiator is in it’s proprietary data and a clear value exchange with customers who expect the bank to “know” them.
