Where does the finance sector stand with AI in 2026?

Where does the finance sector really stand with AI? To find out, we interviewed leaders at Finnish and Swedish financial organisations. The result is a report that looks closely at how AI is changing one of the most tightly regulated industries in the world.

We will go through the report’s themes at the AI in Finance Sector 2026 event on 3 September. Juha Raumolin (Banksmith), Shyam Mohan (Backbase) and Erika Leo (Crif) will share their own experiences and thoughts on the report’s findings.

The value is real, but it isn’t in the headlines

There is a lot of hype about flashy features that customers can see, but right now the clearest and most measurable benefits are on the operational side. These include faster case handling, better recognition of what the customer wants, fewer repeat contacts, and standard processes, such as claims handling and dispute resolution, where cost savings are easy to show.

“We are seeking strong growth in customer numbers, so we need to find more efficiency here in order to keep our heads above water. That means automating away the less demanding work.” – Chief Innovation Officer at a bank

Interviewees in the report see customer-facing features, such as proactive services, personalised offers and round-the-clock virtual assistants, as longer-term goals.

AI customer service faces high expectations

People are happy when things get solved smoothly, whether it’s AI or a person on the other end. But once AI becomes visible, it needs to be genuinely helpful, or trust breaks down fast. Several people we spoke to said chatbots stuck in endless, unhelpful loops are the fastest way to put a customer off. According to interviewees, overemphasising AI can get in the way of communicating the benefits it actually delivers.

The EU’s new AI Act adds another factor here. The regulation says that users must be told clearly, right from their very first interaction, that they are talking with AI.

Regulation isn’t the real bottleneck: interpreting it is

You might think that regulation is what slows down AI use in the finance sector. In practice, though, much of the friction doesn’t come from the rules themselves. It comes from internal processes that check compliance separately for every single AI use case. In large organisations, this checking process can be slow, take up a lot of resources, and be inconsistent.

The organisations making the fastest and most lasting progress bring in a compliance view early in the design process, instead of treating it as a final step at the end.

Three risks worth taking seriously

Three risks came up again and again in the report:

1. Bias, especially in vendor models
   Watching for bias is one of the biggest AI challenges in financial services. Biased models don’t just give unfair results once. They do it again and again, often without anyone noticing. This is a bigger problem with models bought from outside vendors, where organisations can’t see exactly how the models were built. Spotting bias over time needs new monitoring systems that most organisations are still building.
2. Hallucinations damage trust
   AI can give answers that sound confident but are wrong, and these can slip into conversations with customers without enough checking. Customers notice AI mainly when it fails in this way, and they react with frustration and distrust. Full automation is seen as unsuitable, especially for complex investment advice. Technology can support decisions, but it should not make them alone.
3. The quiet loss of expertise
   This risk often gets less attention, even though it could be just as important in the long run. As AI takes on more analytical work, people’s own skills can start to fade. Those skills are exactly what make human oversight valuable.

The future of customer experience

Perhaps the most thought-provoking finding is about the future of customer experience itself. As AI agents talk, negotiate and make deals with each other, what happens to the human contact that many financial organisations have built their whole strategy around?

“As the world moves toward a situation where the customer’s agent and our agent handle the process between themselves, I am somewhat concerned that no customer experience is even created in that scenario.” – Head of Technology Development at a bank

This is a real strategic question that every financial organisation going digital will have to answer sooner or later.

We are bringing together the people working through these questions at the AI in Finance Sector 2026 event on 3 September. Sign up on the event page!