According to the Finastra Financial Services State of the Nation 2026 report, only 2 per cent of financial institutions haven’t yet implemented AI in any form.
On the other hand, 43 per cent of organisations cite AI as their key method of innovation, with risk management and fraud detection, as well as data analysis and reporting being the most common implementations of AI, confirmed by 71 per cent of report respondents.
Closely following at 69 per cent, customer service assistance and document intelligence management are also key uses of the technology by firms. Australia’s largest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has already tried and implemented AI for its customer service teams, seemingly part of a growing trend among banks and financial institutions.
This comes as around 38 per cent of respondents said that customers’ top demand was more personalised experiences and improved service. Additionally, only 4 per cent of institutions globally offered no personalised experiences.
In regard to AI more broadly, 6 of 10 firms said they had made improvements to their AI capabilities in the last year, focusing on scaling the technology responsibly and securely while ensuring profitability across core functions, such as customer engagement, compliance, lending and payments.
Despite fear around AI, its impact on the stock market and the risk of poor implementation creating risks and issues for firms, confidence in the finance sector is high, with 87 per cent of respondents showing positivity about the opportunities their firm could achieve at a personal level, while 86 per cent are positive about the outlook for their businesses, with plans for further investment in technologies and partnerships.
Following AI, security is also a major priority, with financial institutions on average planning to increase security investment by 40 per cent this year, as technologies like AI become more foundational.
Daniel Croft