Financial Services AI Spending Rises, Yet Most Initiatives Still Can’t Show Tangible Business Value
What's happening
Financial services firms are spending more on AI but most projects still fail to prove business value. Multiple pieces note banks and issuers moving from experimentation to deployment, yet initiatives often remain in pilots or constrained by governance, legacy infrastructure and lack of trust. Specific findings include Sabio World research across 14 Malaysian banks showing 76% of initiatives stuck in pilots, Regnology and ComplyAdvantage reporting regulators pushing for cloud, explainability and AI risk guidelines (MAS consultation in Nov 2025), and PYMNTS highlighting that issuer AI readiness varies, with cloud-native digital banks better positioned. Commentators from Avaya, WeBuild-AI and Brillio argue adoption needs piece-by-piece modernisation, built-in governance and trust, not just new chiefs or trials.
Why it's trending
Because regulators are tightening expectations (MAS guidelines) and vendor/industry research is exposing pilot-heavy rollouts and infrastructure gaps, forcing firms to justify AI spend now.
SignalHolding at its usual pace, confirmed across 1 independent source type.
Momentum
Score per dayStory volume
Stories per dayAngles you could write
Spending more on AI won't save your bank if you still treat it like a shiny org chart checkbox, appointing a Chief AI Officer won't fix legacy systems or governance gaps.
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Original sources12
- Why regulators are betting big on cloud and AI
Financial regulators are facing growing pressure to modernise their technology infrastructure as rising data volumes, increasingly complex markets and new regulatory demands test traditional approaches to supervision. Regnology’s analysis, drawing on regulatory dialogues and work with more than 100 supervisory authorities globally, identifies three technologies emerging as particularly important t
FinTech GlobalSep 7 - How Banks can Adopt AI Without Losing Customer Trust
Avaya's Cameron Thomson on why banks should automate where confidence is high, keephumans where the stakes rise, and modernise piece by piece. The post How Banks can Adopt AI Without Losing Customer Trust appeared first on The Fintech Times .
The Fintech TimesSep 7 - Why are banks delegating their future?
There was a headline the other day that really annoyed me: Major Banks Are Racing to Appoint Chief AI Officers It annoyed me because it reveals something much deeper about how banks think. Whenever something becomes strategically important, banks respond by appointing a new executive to own it. AI is simply the latest example. For... The post Why are banks delegating their future? appeared first o
The FinanserSep 7
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