Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) CEO Rick Wurster said he was taken aback by the recent drop in the company’s share price, arguing that artificial intelligence is strengthening the firm’s operations rather than posing a competitive risk.
Speaking in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, Wurster responded to investor concerns after Schwab’s stock fell 7.4% on Tuesday amid broader worries about AI-driven disruption in the financial services sector.
“We are benefiting from and using AI with clients,” Wurster said, pointing to the firm’s integration of AI-powered Wealth.com tools into its client engagement strategy.
He added that AI has delivered tangible efficiency gains, noting that the “cost to serve a Schwab account has dropped 21%.”
Wurster said he was “disappointed and surprised at the stock sell-off,” suggesting that “the market’s missing that we’re a winner in the AI space.”