Artificial intelligence, or AI, is one of the buzzwords on the lips of many of the presenters at the 2025 Acquire or Be Acquired conference this week in Phoenix. Survey results shared at one breakout session on Monday showed the bank departments some speculate are most likely to be disrupted by AI. In order, they are: Fraud detection and risk management; back office (reconciliation, compliance); loan underwriting and credit analysis; customer service, and marketing.
On Monday, Microsoft Senior Advisor Falguni Desai asked during her general session presentation whether anyone in the room feared AI would take their job. Not a single person in the room raised their hand. Desai revealed that her company had surveyed 31,000 people in business and 49 percent of them said they feared AI is going to take their jobs. Microsoft also asked those surveyed whether they would use AI in their jobs if it was made available to them. Seventy-nine percent said they would.
“This is really about learning,” Desai said. “It should not be about fear.”
And there is financial incentive to make use of AI, she said. A separate survey of 4,000 business leaders showed that for every dollar invested in generative AI, the businesses realized a return of $3.70. Banks, as a subset of businesses, reported even greater returns.
While many bankers generally consider themselves to be “fast followers” on tech innovation, Dave Foss, executive board chair of Jack Henry & Associates, said tech experts see banks as “reasonable” followers, as their efforts to manage risk typically slow their embrace of the latest technology.
Results from a Bank Director magazine survey showed nearly half of respondents said they are spending on technology to improve operational efficiency, while 29 percent are spending on tech to attract or retain customers. The top technology expenditure for banks currently, according to survey participants, is “payments capability.”
It was noted that while 30 percent said they are spending on “fraud solutions” and 46 percent are spending on “digital retail account opening” those two goals are in conflict with each other as customers want a fast and easy account-opening experience, while fraud prevention typically introduces additional steps for increasing security.