NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Citigroup ( C/PN ) began rolling out

on Wednesday new artificial intelligence tools to be used by

employees in eight countries, senior executives said.

Around 140,000 employees will have access to the tools. In a

memo to staff sent on Wednesday, Tim Ryan, head of technology

and business enablement, explained how each of them works.

Citi Assist searches internal bank policies and procedures.

"It's like having a super-smart coworker at your fingertips to

help navigate commonly used policies and procedures across HR,

risk, compliance, and finance," Ryan said in the memo.

The other tool, Citi Stylus, is able to summarize, compare

or search multiple documents at the same time. Beginning this

month, both tools will be accessible to employees in the U.S.,

Canada, Hungary, India, Ireland, Poland, Singapore and the

United Kingdom. They will be gradually expanded to other

markets.

Large banks have been using artificial intelligence tools in

more targeted ways. Morgan Stanley has a chatbot that helps

financial advisors in interactions with clients, and Bank of

America's virtual assistant Erica focuses on day-to-day

transactions of retail clients.

Ryan said in a video interview with Reuters that Citi will

review how employees are interacting with the tools to develop

new uses for them, but staff may also make proposals. "These

tools will help to simplify work and increase productivity.", he

added.

Ryan, a former PwC executive, joined Citigroup ( C/PN ) earlier this

year and is responsible since September for fixing the bank's

longstanding data management issues alongside Chief Operating

Officer Anand Selva.

Chief Technology Officer David Griffiths said in the

interview that the artificial intelligence initiatives are

"separate" from the work being carried to improve the bank's

data quality and infrastructure to comply with regulators

consent orders.