TLDR: Major financial institutions are rapidly increasing their deployment of artificial intelligence, particularly agentic AI tools, according to a recent Evident Insights report. The first half of 2025 saw a doubling of new AI use cases and a tenfold increase in technologists focused on agentic AI among the world’s 50 largest banks. Over half of these new deployments leverage generative AI, with a growing emphasis on shifting these powerful tools from internal operations to direct customer interactions.
The global financial sector is experiencing a significant surge in artificial intelligence adoption, with agentic AI tools emerging as a key focus, according to a recent report from Evident Insights. The analysis, which surveyed 50 of the world’s largest financial firms, reveals a dramatic acceleration in AI deployments during the first half of 2025.
During this period, the number of new AI use cases launched by these institutions doubled compared to the latter half of 2024. Concurrently, the workforce dedicated to developing and implementing agentic AI solutions saw a more than tenfold increase, underscoring the industry’s commitment to this advanced form of AI.
A substantial portion of these new deployments, specifically over half of the 173 use cases analyzed, leveraged generative AI capabilities. While nine of the 50 firms have documented AI agents in either pilot or production phases, only a select few, including BNY, Capital One, and JPMorgan Chase, have publicly disclosed details regarding the underlying architecture supporting their agentic workflows.
Banks are currently navigating a dual objective: optimizing the potential outcomes from their existing generative AI deployments while simultaneously evaluating early experiments with agentic AI. Evident Insights noted, ‘They are optimizing potential outcomes from generative AI deployments, while simultaneously assessing early experiments with agentic AI.’
Generative AI is proving instrumental in transforming daily operations by harnessing vast stores of untapped enterprise data, digesting raw documentation, and delivering insights that expedite analytics and customer service processes. Developers are also testing the efficacy of natural language assistants to streamline complex coding tasks.
While the initial focus for generative AI applications has largely been on internal use cases, a strategic shift towards customer-facing applications is now underway. Currently, only 15 out of 97 deployed generative AI use cases are directly accessible to clients, account holders, or prospective customers without human intervention. Retail banking is leading this transition, utilizing generative AI to enhance legacy chatbots and power in-app avatars that offer personalized device-based customer interactions.
Notable examples include Wells Fargo, which has upgraded its Fargo virtual banking assistant with Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model and other internal AI models, further expanding its AI partnership with Google. Similarly, Commerzbank launched its AI avatar ‘Ava’ in April, an app-based assistant built on Microsoft’s Azure AI toolkit designed to answer general banking questions and provide personalized account information.
Internally, the proliferation of AI tools is widespread. Ten leading banks within the Evident AI Index, including industry giants like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America, have collectively equipped over 800,000 employees—representing two-thirds of their combined workforce—with AI tools. The most significant AI successes to date have been observed in front office applications and IT and security functions, with over two-thirds of use cases reporting positive outcomes concentrated in these areas, including tools that assist sales.
Also Read:
- ING’s Marnix van Stiphout Details Rapid Generative AI Integration and Strategic Impact in Banking
- Salesforce and PayPal Executives Highlight Transformative Potential of Agentic AI in Financial Operations
Looking ahead, Evident Insights predicts a continued push for AI integration. ‘Leading banks will use the back half of the year to scale generative AI – and work to put more tools in customers’ hands,’ the firm stated. ‘As they scale AI and ramp up to agentic, they’ll look to bring the tech everywhere across the bank.’
