The PNC digital banking experience is getting a major overhaul as the Pittsburgh-based lender races to bring its online and mobile channels up to the same standard as its highly rated branches.
Key Points
Known for emphasizing hospitality and elevated service in its physical locations, PNC has seen customer experience scores strengthen in-branch. Now, leadership is betting that a replatformed online system, a new AI-built mobile app and a growing branch footprint can work together to create human-level quality in digital interactions too.
Retail lending head Alex Overstrom and CEO Bill Demchak have both acknowledged a gap: while customers praise PNC’s branch experience, its online and mobile banking have been, in Demchak’s words, “no better than average.” The bank’s latest technology push is aimed at closing that gap quickly — and at scale.
PNC digital banking experience enters a new phase
Over the past couple of years, PNC has been quietly replatforming its digital interface for customers. That multi-year effort reached an important milestone last month, when the bank completed migrating customers onto its new online banking system, Overstrom said.
The upgraded platform gives PNC more flexibility and speed in how it delivers new features. Instead of long, cumbersome development cycles, the bank can now roll out digital improvements and product changes at a much faster pace.
Overstrom highlighted capabilities such as digital direct deposit switching and instant debit card issuance within PNC’s mobile app as early examples of what the new infrastructure enables. Those features are designed to deepen primary relationships and make it easier for clients to move their everyday banking to PNC.
Demchak has framed the shift as transformational behind the scenes. What once took roughly six months to adjust within the old online banking system can now be changed “literally overnight” on the new platform, he said on a January earnings call.
That faster engine sits at the core of the next stage in the PNC digital banking experience.
Faster feature delivery to close the digital gap
For PNC, replatforming is not just a technology project — it is a response to a clear performance gap between human and digital channels.
Demchak has repeatedly noted that PNC scores well in customer surveys on its branch experience, but falls back into the pack on its online and mobile offerings. To him, that is not acceptable in an environment where digital is often the first, and sometimes only, touchpoint with customers.
The new platform is meant to fix the underlying constraint: speed. With the ability to introduce and refine products “on the fly,” PNC can test, adjust and enhance its offerings much more quickly than before.
In practice, that could mean refining user journeys, streamlining tasks or adding self-service tools far more frequently — all aimed at making the PNC digital banking experience easier to navigate and more intuitive for customers who are accustomed to smooth technology in other parts of their lives.
AI agents help build the next PNC mobile app
Alongside the online replatforming, PNC is also rebuilding its mobile presence. The bank is working on a new app it plans to launch in the first half of next year, Overstrom said.
To accelerate development, PNC is using agentic technology — a series of orchestrated AI agents — to help build the new app more quickly. While the bank has not shared detailed technical specifics, Overstrom described a project that is already about 40% to 50% complete.
The upcoming app is expected to offer:
- A redesigned user interface
- A new navigation framework
- “A whole bunch of incremental functionality” compared with today’s app
PNC’s goal is to have the new mobile app in market before it completes the systems integration following its FirstBank acquisition, which is projected for June 2026. Rolling out the app ahead of that conversion would give customers a more advanced front end before the combined systems fully come together.
Overstrom summed up the ambition simply: “If we can get our digital experiences to the same quality as our human experiences, we’ll be in great shape.”
Branch network still drives digital growth
Even as it upgrades technology, PNC is not retreating from branches. In fact, it is leaning into them.
Overstrom stressed the importance of linking digital capabilities with a strong physical presence, pointing to what he called a “halo effect” of branches on digital sales.
In markets where PNC has a dense branch network, digital sales are six times higher than in markets where it lacks branches, he said. Customers may interact “99.9% digitally,” but they still want the reassurance that a bank is “around the corner” if they need it.
That dynamic is showing up in PNC’s sales figures. Overstrom said it has been a record year for demand deposit account openings in branches. In the third quarter, consumer DDAs grew 2% year over year, with the Southwest region posting 6% growth.
At the same time, the bank is using branch interactions to pull more customers into its digital ecosystem. Staff are making a focused effort to enroll new account holders in online banking and walk them through how to use PNC’s app while they are still in the branch.
One year ago, 45% of consumers who opened a new deposit account in a branch were digitally active that same day. As of November, that figure had risen to 59%, Overstrom said. Across the consumer business overall, about 77% of clients are now digitally active.
Those numbers underscore how PNC sees its physical and digital channels working together, rather than in competition, to strengthen the overall PNC digital banking experience.
Big branch expansion plan, with Chicago in focus
PNC’s conviction in branches is also visible in its long-term expansion plans.
Last month, the bank announced it would open 300 new locations by 2030, backed by roughly $2 billion in investment. Among those, PNC plans to add 35 branches in Nashville, Tennessee, and 25 in Chicago, as it aims for about a 7% share of branches in its markets.
Chicago, where PNC has around 115 branches today, stands out as a key target. Overstrom described it as a market where the bank does not yet have the density it wants.
If you look at a map of the network, he said, there are “holes around the city” that PNC believes it can fill to drive a stronger sense of density, ubiquity and convenience — and, ultimately, to “really own the Chicago market.”
While Chicago may not have the same growth profile as some Southeast or Southwest markets PNC is focusing on, Overstrom pointed to attractive growth in many of its suburbs, as well as the area’s overall affluence. New branches are planned both in the downtown core and in surrounding counties such as Cook, McHenry and Will.
Other banks, including U.S. Bank, have flagged their own expansion efforts in Chicago. But Overstrom emphasized that PNC’s strategy in the city is driven primarily by its own network and growth plans, not by competitors.
Balancing automation, hiring and branch optimization
PNC’s strategy involves a careful balance between hiring on the front line and automation behind the scenes.
As part of its branch expansion push, the bank expects to hire about 2,000 people. At the same time, Overstrom noted that PNC has already taken more than 2,000 roles out of its operational and middle office areas over the past couple of years as it automated more processes and drove efficiencies.
He described the cost savings in those parts of the organization as “tremendous,” reflecting a broader industry trend toward using technology to streamline internal workflows while keeping or even expanding customer-facing roles.
The lender has also been reshaping its legacy branch network. Since 2022, PNC has been “optimizing” branches by closing locations inside grocery stores and consolidating branches that were too close to each other. Those efforts are largely complete, with about 30 branch closures expected this year, Overstrom said.
Taken together, these moves show a bank trying to direct resources toward the combination of digital tools and physical locations it believes will deliver the best long-term return — and the most consistent experience for customers.
What PNC’s hybrid strategy means for customers
PNC is not disclosing how much it has invested in its technology upgrades. But the outline of its strategy is clear.
On one side, the bank is rebuilding its digital foundation: a replatformed online system, faster feature delivery and a new AI-assisted mobile app aimed at making the PNC digital banking experience more intuitive and more powerful.
On the other side, it is doubling down on branches in key markets, betting that physical presence amplifies digital engagement and deepens relationships — even for customers who primarily bank on their phones.
At the same time, PNC is using automation to trim middle- and back-office costs, allowing it to reinvest in areas it sees as core to growth: front-line roles, branch density and improved digital channels.
Suppose the bank succeeds in bringing the quality of its online and mobile services up to the level of its in-branch hospitality. In that case, it will have created the kind of hybrid model its leaders are aiming for — one where technology delivers speed and convenience, and human touch points, whether in person or behind the screen, continue to anchor trust.
