Key Findings from the 2024 Global Banking Benchmark Study: Gen AI Accelerates Digital Transformation

This year’s Global Banking Benchmark Study reveals that artificial intelligence (AI) dominates banks’ digital transformation plans, signaling that their adoption of AI is on the brink of change.

While banking executives find digital transformation more challenging than they did when we conducted this survey two years ago , they are looking to digital to improve the bottom line. Budgets are tight, so executives are shifting their digital transformation priorities from “doing more” to “doing better.”

The good news? Investment in AI, machine learning and Gen AI can supercharge how banks meet their operational and customer experience goals in a spending squeeze.

Beyond incremental improvements: How banks should think about Gen AI

AI is not new to banking. Banks have used it for years to automate insight generation, augment employee skills, eliminate repetitive tasks and more.

But Gen AI is different. Gen AI brings nuance, breakthrough capabilities and exciting potential to banks’ AI journeys. It can help banks drive operational efficiencies and create cost savings. That’s just what’s needed in the current environment where belts are tight and business cases are scrutinized.

At the same time, Gen AI can help banks transform employee and customer experiences and innovate every aspect of how they do business. The goal is to go beyond implementing the technology itself to thoughtfully incorporate Gen AI into the underlying business model, existing workflows and enterprise-wide digital business transformation.

Key insights from the study: AI-powered, customer-focused transformation built on agility, data and cloud begins internally

While this momentum around AI is kickstarting the next wave of digital transformation in banking, there are complex technological, organizational and cultural changes that must happen with this shift. The importance of bringing the workforce along with the change should not be underestimated. Even industry leaders could find themselves chasing the pace of change because there’s always a new horizon to conquer.

Download the full report to get exclusive insights from 1,000 senior banking executives:

What leaders are doing—and how they’re using their budgets —to transform their businesses with Gen AI
The role of agility when it comes to customer and employee experience transformation in banking
The importance of data and migration to a cloud-based coreless architecture to enable the full potential of Gen AI

Banks that make the most of Gen AI with the right foundation can connect, innovate and compete in ways they never could before, all while preserving consumer trust.

“AI, machine learning and Gen AI are both the focus and the fuel of banks’ digital transformation efforts. The biggest question for executives isn’t about the potential of these technologies. It’s how best to move from experimenting with use cases in pockets of the business to implementing at scale across the enterprise. The right data is key. It’s what powers the models.”
Dave Murphy , Financial Services Lead, International, Publicis Sapient