JPMorgan’s AI chief Teresa Heitsenrether to retire at year-end; CTO Scot Baldry to absorb role

JPMorgan Chase’s top artificial intelligence executive, Teresa Heitsenrether, plans to retire at the end of 2026, according to reports published July 1 and July 2. Heitsenrether, who has led the bank’s AI strategy for roughly the past three years, will leave the firm at year-end, with JPMorgan’s chief technology officer, Scot Baldry, set to absorb her responsibilities, the reports said.

The timing and scope of the transition highlight how JPMorgan has organized AI work around both data leadership and technology execution. The bank’s AI strategy has been overseen by Heitsenrether in her role as chief data and analytics officer, with the CTO adding her title and responsibilities but, per the reporting, not joining the bank’s operating committee.

Heitsenrether is described in the reporting as a long-tenured JPMorgan executive who has spent nearly four decades at the firm. Before heading data and analytics, she led the bank’s prime brokerage and securities services functions, and she previously served as head of securities services, a unit that managed $29.7 trillion in assets under custody at the time cited by the report.

In the three years since she took on the firmwide data and AI mandate, the reporting said JPMorgan became a founding member of Anthropic’s “Project Glasswing,” a program that provides selected organizations trusted access to Anthropic’s models. The role also included developing the bank’s own large language model, described as the model now used by most employees, according to the report.

JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon and Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak wrote in a memo to employees about the planned departure, the reporting said. In that memo, they characterized Heitsenrether’s work as pivotal not only for building and transforming institutional businesses but also for shaping the firmwide data and artificial intelligence strategy they described as central to JPMorgan’s future.

The reported leadership change arrives as large banks increasingly treat AI deployment, governance, and model development as ongoing operating functions rather than one-off technology initiatives. JPMorgan’s structure, as described in the reporting, mirrors that shift by placing AI under a senior operating leader focused on data and analytics, while the CTO carries the engineering, platform, and systems layer needed to operationalize models across business lines.

What JPMorgan has not disclosed in the reports is the specific internal reorganization plan, including whether responsibilities will be split beyond the CTO taking on additional duties, or whether any new executive role will be created to replace Heitsenrether’s portfolio. The reports also do not spell out how the timeline for key AI initiatives may change during the transition through year-end.

For the near term, the principal items to watch are JPMorgan’s internal continuity on model governance, enterprise adoption of its employee-facing language model, and how its partnership strategy for AI access and tooling evolves as it moves into Heitsenrether’s final months. The transition also raises questions about whether the bank’s operating committee composition and decision-making cadence around AI will change once Baldry’s expanded remit takes effect.