Leaders across Europe’s financial services sector continue to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) technologies into their operations to achieve productivity and efficiency uplifts, according to the second EY European Financial Services AI Survey, but only 9% rank themselves ahead of the curve. Whilst leaders’ aspirations for a more AI-enabled business are high and 28% say they have accelerated overall AI adoption over the last year, most firms remain in the early, experimental stages, especially when it comes to GenAI.
The new survey data, which canvassed the views of European financial services executives at over 100 firms representing an aggregate market cap of almost €880bn, finds that only 31% of firms across Europe believe they are on track with overall AI integration. Just 11% of executives say their firm is prepared for incoming AI regulation, and despite 78% acknowledging their workforce has only some, limited or no experience of the newest GenAI-related technologies, only a quarter of firms have established new training and upskilling programmes, with 60% still in the planning phase.
Omar Ali, EY Global Financial Services Leader, comments: “GenAI continues to sit high on the agenda for financial services leadership teams, promising well-acknowledged new levels of productivity gain. There is little doubt within the sector that harnessing AI – and increasingly GenAI – is game-changing, but the implementation of an evolving technology, to budget, within risk appetite and across an entire workforce, is hugely complex and challenging. Whilst some firms have made huge leaps in adopting AI and have seen real benefits, many are struggling to keep pace.
“GenAI is developing faster than many other technological innovations of recent times, and demands new, progressive skill sets. The firms that ramp up regulatory preparations, build an appropriate risk and control framework, and roll out essential new training and upskilling programmes across their whole workforce – not just to the technical few – will be setting themselves apart from the competition.”
AI could impact up to a third of Europe’s finance roles – especially at entry-level
The majority (66%) of executives surveyed believe that over the next year up to a quarter (25%) of current European financial services roles could be impacted by ongoing AI integration, and 93% of executives say up to 10% of roles could become redundant. Despite this, only a quarter (25%) report their firm has an established training programme in place, 43% say plans are still in their infancy, and 29% confirm they currently have no training programmes in place – 12% of whom say they have no plans to develop one.
Entry level positions are expected to be particularly impacted, with 59% of leaders believing AI technologies will have a significant or even transformative impact on the roles and tasks undertaken by those joining the workforce….
Read More: Lack of Upskilling and Low Regulatory Preparedness is Holding Back Deeper
