Financial institutions allocate minimal budgets to AI despite viewing it as strategic priority
Nearly two-thirds of financial institutions are spending 10% or less of their technology budgets on artificial intelligence, according to a survey of 201 financial services professionals conducted between October 2025 and January 2026. This spending level falls 30% to 40% below the global standard.
The gap reveals a disconnect: while most financial institutions see AI as essential to competitive positioning, they are not backing that belief with proportional investment. The survey included 20 in-depth interviews across banking, insurance, and asset and wealth management sectors.
Financial institutions report concrete returns from their AI spending. Respondents cited reduced risk, more effective compliance, increased revenues, and lower costs as measurable outcomes from AI projects.
The specific applications vary by sector. Banks deploy AI heavily in anti-money laundering and compliance. Insurance firms prioritize customer service automation. Asset and wealth managers use AI directly in investment and portfolio management, risk assessment, and data analysis.
Yet budget constraints are not the primary obstacle to expansion. Financial institutions identified talent shortages and organizational rigidity as greater barriers to deploying AI than either technical limitations or funding.
Only 29% of financial institutions say they have successfully built an "AI-first" culture within their organizations. This suggests that strategy and money alone do not drive adoption-the operational and human elements remain the harder problem to solve.
Financial leaders seeking to close this gap may benefit from understanding how peers are structuring AI investments and addressing cultural barriers. AI Learning Path for CFOs covers budget allocation, strategy development, and organizational transformation challenges specific to financial institutions.
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