High-level expression of the transcription factor T-bet characterizes a phenotypically distinct murine B cell population known as “age-associated B cells” (ABCs). T-bet–deficient mice have reduced ABCs and impaired humoral immunity. We describe a patient with inherited T-bet deficiency and largely normal humoral immunity including intact somatic hypermutation, affinity maturation and memory B cell formation in vivo, and B cell differentiation into Ig-producing plasmablasts in vitro. Nevertheless, the patient exhibited skewed class switching to IgG1, IgG4, and IgE, along with reduced IgG2, both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, T-bet was required for the in vivo and in vitro development of a distinct subset of human B cells characterized by reduced expression of CD21 and the concomitantly high expression of CD19, CD20, CD11c, FCRL5, and T-bet, a phenotype that shares many features with murine ABCs. Mechanistically, human T-bet governed CD21
lo
CD11c
hi
B cell differentiation by controlling the chromatin accessibility of lineage-defining genes in these cells:
FAS
,
IL21R
,
SEC61B
,
DUSP4
,
DAPP1
,
SOX5
,
CD79B
, and
CXCR4
. Thus, human T-bet is largely redundant for long-lived protective humoral immunity but is essential for the development of a distinct subset of human CD11c
hi
CD21
lo
B cells.