David Griffiths Is one of TIME's 2026 Executives of the Year: Tech and Data - Time Magazine

David Griffiths trained as a neuroscientist but quickly determined he was “too impatient to be a scientist.” He wanted the immediacy of engineering: “write code, press go, and watch it do something now.” As group head of AI at Citigroup, he’s bringing that instinct to one of the world’s largest financial institutions, building excitement for how “AI can make employees’ lives better and can make them more productive.”

Over two and a half years, Griffiths has pushed Citi’s AI into daily use across the bank, reaching nearly 180,000 employees in 87 countries. Engineers are finishing projects many times faster. Wealth advisors can spend more time getting deep with clients rather than preparing materials before meetings.

Arc, Citi’s internal platform launched in April 2026, allows the financial powerhouse to build and deploy agents in a controlled environment rather than have hundreds of teams work independently. “We’ve read lots in the media about AI agents doing things they shouldn’t, and we could never afford for that to happen within a bank,” Griffiths says.