MUFG aims to become AI-native with OpenAI

MUFG is one of Japan's largest financial groups, with Mitsubishi UFJ Bank at its core. Through banking, trust banking, securities, cards, leasing, and other financial services, MUFG supports individuals and businesses in Japan and around the world.

For MUFG, AI is more than an efficiency tool. The company sees it as a way to extend human thinking and creativity, helping employees and AI learn together as they build better financial services. To advance that vision, MUFG is working with OpenAI to roll out ChatGPT Enterprise across Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and create new AI-powered customer experiences.

In October 2024, MUFG began working with OpenAI to modernize financial operations and improve efficiency with generative AI. Beginning in 2026, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank began a phased rollout of ChatGPT Enterprise so that approximately 35,000 employees could use it in their daily work, as MUFG continues its journey toward becoming an AI-native company.

Building an AI-native foundation with OpenAI

MUFG is building the systems, environments, and culture that make AI part of everyday work. Its transformation combines top-down commitment from leadership with bottom-up enablement for employees using AI in daily workflows.

"I believe AI will fundamentally change the nature of finance," says Tadashi Yamamoto, Group CDTO at MUFG. "To bring AI into the organization quickly, it is important to have an environment and culture where every employee can use AI naturally."

OpenAI became MUFG's partner of choice for that shift. Yamamoto describes OpenAI as a hands-on partner from service design through implementation, helping MUFG pursue both customer-service innovation and banking transformation.

“OpenAI shared our vision of becoming an AI-native company. With its frontier technology and models, we saw a partner that could help us turn that vision into reality.”

Tadashi Yamamoto, Group CDTO, MUFG

One core part of the initiative is the bank-wide rollout of ChatGPT Enterprise. Kohei Shimano, Managing Director and Head of the Artificial Intelligence and Solutions Department at Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, says the deciding factors were broad applicability and secure use. Many employees were already familiar with ChatGPT, and enterprise-grade security made it possible to roll out the tool while meeting the management and governance requirements expected of a financial institution.

"We are aiming for a world where AI is not a tool used only by a small number of experts, but something every employee can use in daily work, almost like a partner," Shimano says. He adds that OpenAI worked with MUFG on security requirements, offering concrete proposals through product improvements and updates to address security and governance barriers that could otherwise have slowed the rollout.

Helping employees use AI with confidence

As MUFG rolled out ChatGPT Enterprise, access alone would not create impact. Employees needed to understand when and how to use the tool, incorporate it into their work, and use it with confidence. As a financial institution, MUFG also needed clear processes for information management, approval routes, and rules for what employees could and could not do.

OpenAI supported the rollout from introduction through adoption. This included guidance for enterprise use, operational planning, product education, training programs for all employees, custom GPT workshops, and executive study sessions. MUFG also made AI training mandatory: employees had to complete e-learning before they could use ChatGPT Enterprise.

"The blocker was not the technology itself," Shimano says. "It was inside the organization. People did not know how to use it or what they were allowed to use it for. By making full use of the training program OpenAI provided, we created a positive cycle where more employees started using it and adoption increased."

Sayuri Yonese, Vice President, Artificial Intelligence and Solutions Department at MUFG Bank, says OpenAI's support helped MUFG create a foundation for employees to expand AI use on their own. OpenAI provided custom GPT training materials, banking-specific examples, and best practices for driving adoption at scale. MUFG then appointed AI champions in each department. Rather than relying on a single central team, these AI champions encourage colleagues to experiment with AI and help expand usage from within each business area.

That shift is visible in internal conversations. Earlier discussions often centered on questions like, "What can we use AI for?" and "Are we even allowed to use it?" Today, the conversation has moved toward, "How should we use it?" and "Where should we apply it next?"

Results at a glance

Since MUFG began rolling out ChatGPT Enterprise to approximately 35,000 employees at Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, early signs of adoption and impact are emerging across the organization.

• Training participation among employees receiving accounts reached 100%, with mandatory e-learning helping establish shared standards for safe, effective use.
• After OpenAI-led custom GPT training, employees created more than 1,800 custom GPTs in four months, showing that teams were starting to embed AI in daily workflows.
• In selected research tasks, such as tracking AI trends and preparing updates for executives and internal stakeholders, employees reported a 20-30% reduction in workload.

Across the bank, employees have also created many custom GPTs known internally as “AI bankers.” Employees in each department tailor these AI bankers to their own workflows, using them to streamline time-consuming tasks and make specialized knowledge that once depended on specific individuals more accessible across the organization.

Yonese describes AI bankers as supporters for employees. “They help our employees focus on work that creates greater value and on the work that leads to better value for our customers,” she says.

For MUFG, however, the true value of AI is not simply reducing workload. It is about reinvesting the time saved into customer visits, stronger proposals, and the decisions and approvals that remain the responsibility of people. By using AI, employees can focus more on work only humans can do and spend more time engaging directly with customers. That idea lies at the heart of MUFG’s AI native transformation.

Reimagining financial services through AI

MUFG and OpenAI's work does not end with internal transformation. The company is also exploring how AI can change the way customers discover financial services, seek advice, and take action.

One example is Moneytree, a wealth management app. Through Apps in ChatGPT, users will be able to ask questions in natural language from within ChatGPT and view information such as account balances and transaction details. The experience can use follow-up questions to organize relevant information and make it easier to understand in a conversational format.

*Interface and functionality shown are illustrative and subject to change.

At WealthNavi, which provides robo-advisory services, a dedicated AI organization is being established and collaboration with OpenAI is moving forward. Building on the company’s efforts to pioneer fully automated asset management, WealthNavi is now seeking to accelerate that journey further with AI.

As part of these efforts, MUFG, including WealthNavi, plans to use OpenAI technology in the digital bank at the center of emutt, its integrated financial services brand. Specifically, it is preparing to implement an AI concierge that makes finance feel more accessible through conversations with customers, as well as MAP (Money Advisory Platform), a comprehensive advisory platform designed to deliver personalized recommendations tailored to each customer’s life stage.

“We want to provide financial services 24/7, without the constraints of time or place,” Yamamoto says. “In the digital bank, we want to deliver personalized recommendations that only AI can make possible.”

MUFG is moving beyond the conventional experience centered on banking apps and branches toward a future where people can move naturally from financial guidance to transactions through their everyday interactions with AI. Through its digital bank, MUFG aims to bring AI-native finance to more customers.