The top banking users of AI have prioritized securing and training talent

The finding: According to a UK-based intelligence platform’s analysis, JPMorgan and Capital One are winning the AI race thanks to their on-staff AI experts.

• These findings are based on Evident’s AI Index, which independently ranks the AI maturity of 50 of the world’s largest banks based on publicly available information.

The results: Ranking in the top two spots across all categories, JPMorgan claimed first place overall for the second year in a row.

• The analysis gives the highest weighting to the Talent category, at 45%, with Capital One and JPMorgan ranking first and second, respectively. This category analyzes the AI capabilities of a financial institution’s (FI’s) staff, along with its success in retaining, attracting, and training staff in AI.
• Innovation, weighted at 30%, measures investment in AI research, patents, partnerships, and engagement in the open-source development ecosystem. For this category, JPMorgan and Capital One switched places, at first and second place.
• Weighted at 15% is Leadership, which assesses a FI’s focus on AI in public communications, and its AI narrative across owned media channels. DBS ranked first and JPMorgan second in this category.
• The Index also evaluates a FI’s Transparency, or its focus on responsible AI usage through thought leadership, partnerships, and hiring decisions, which is weighted at 10%. JPMorgan won this ranking, followed by Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

AI talent wars: Capital One and JPMorgan both secured a significant mass of AI-related talent relative to their total number of employees—something FIs will need to prioritize if they want to keep up.

• Staff with AI talent know they’re in high demand. For every three AI hires in the financial sector, FIs lose two.
• Top AI talent can come with a hefty price tag, prompting bidding wars across multiple industries.
• This year, Morgan Stanley suffered from the highest AI talent attrition rate, while JPMorgan had the lowest.

AI innovation: FIs that fail to not only embrace AI but innovate using it risk falling further behind the leaders. 

• No FI can dominate AI innovation by itself, which is why collaborative development through open-source environments is so necessary.
• Leading FIs dedicate research teams to AI and publish their research, which helps to attract top AI talent.
• JPMorgan released the most research papers on AI in the last six years, and Capital One filed the most AI-related patents and had the most AI-related Github repositories.

Key takeaways: FIs know they must adopt AI to remain competitive through what McKinsey has called “The Great Transition.” However, having and adopting AI is only a small part of the equation.

• Successfully implementing AI to optimize operations, marketing, and customer service requires staff that knows how to use it. Plus, innovation mandates that talent pushes the limits of AI. 
• FIs which invest heavily in ensuring their staff understands how AI can make their functions more effective and efficient will continue to pull ahead.