C-suite executives at financial institutions are implementing AI and generative AI throughout their organizations, but as experimentation turns into application, here’s the question: Is the juice worth the squeeze? 

Ninety-eight percent of industry leaders say integrating AI into their strategies will drive a 52% increase in revenue during the next five years.  

This is one finding of a recent survey of 101 full-time financial services industry executives at the manager level or higher. The “Revenue Enablement in Financial Services: 2024 Global Findings & Insights” survey, conducted between July 23 and Aug. 9 by tech provider Seismic, also found: 

• 62% of financial service companies are already using AI-powered tools in their enablement processes; 

• 98% of those surveyed say their firms are increasing investment in enablement technology going into 2025; and 

• 93% of those surveyed say their companies are upping investment after seeing returns on investment.  

Where to start?

However, as some financial institutions go all in on AI and gen AI, others are looking to increase their investment but aren’t sure where to start, according to cloud-based software provider Basware’s “From AI to ROI” report, released last month. The 400 senior finance leaders surveyed found: 

• 75% want to increase investment in AI within 12 to 18 months; and 

• 68% say their business could use AI more effectively to support transformation.  

So, how do leaders at financial institutions decide how to invest in AI and gen AI for optimal returns? 

Scott Weller, chief technology officer at AI-driven, risk-management decisioning and monitoring platform EnFi, recommends asking the following questions internally when approaching AI: 

• What is the impact of the AI application? 

• Can the effectiveness of the AI application be measured? 

• Is there a real application for the AI or is it experimental? 

Even with those questions answered, bank leaders must understand that the return on the tech investment is not as simple as measuring profit over loss, Weller said.  

According to data analytics company Evident AI’s Index Rankings, which measures AI talent, innovation, leadership and transparency, the following banks are leading the AI charge: 

• $3.4 trillion JPMorgan Chase; 

• $490 billion Capital One; 

• $1.4 trillion Royal Bank of Canada; and 

• $1.7 trillion Wells Fargo.  

Tangible vs. intangible value

When identifying uses for AI and generative AI within financial institutions, leaders must step back and first define how they classify the tech internally. This definition will likely vary among institutions, Kris Lazzaretti, president of data solutions at data-driven marketing agency Deluxe, told BAN. 

“There’s a really common and clear discussion that has to be had around what the value drivers of AI are … and I think it falls into both the tangible and the intangible.” — Kris Lazzaretti, president of data solutions. Deluxe.  

Tangible value, he said, can present itself as:  

• Actual revenue growth;  

• Measurable employee productivity;  

• Cost savings; and  

• Time savings. 

For example, $219.7 billion Citizens Bank has deployed generative AI in areas of coding, customer service and fraud detection, and has reported a 10% to 20% productivity boost, Michael Ruttledge, chief information officer and head of enterprise technology and security at the bank, previously told BAN.  

Similarly, using Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s AI platform, Discover Financial Services has reduced response times for call center agents by 70% with generative AI, Szabolcs Paldy, senior vice president of enterprise operations at Discover, previously told BAN.  

Meanwhile, intangible value, or “soft value drivers,” Lazzaretti said, might show up as:  

• Improved employee satisfaction;  

• Less employee turnover;  

• Resiliency of the organization; and  

• An ability to pivot when needed.  

“Concentrating on only the tangibles, I think, misses part of the value equation,” he said.  

Calculating ROI

So, what factors do contribute the ROI of AI and generative AI implementation? 

EnFi’s Weller asks whether the AI presents: 

• Higher quality work; 

• More visibility into issues and problems; 

• Proactive efforts rather than reactive;  

• Added efficiency; and 

• Enabling humans to take on different tasks.  

Some applications of gen AI and AI are ticking these boxes when it comes to returns on the investment.  For example, generative AI and AI are posting the returns through: 

Personalization and marketing. With generative AI and AI in place, financial institutions can lean on data to create personalized messaging, products and services that meet customers where they are. 

Motivation AI fintech Persado, for one, uses machine learning, natural language processing and transformer models to create AI-driven messaging for its financial institution clients like Ally, Chase and Lending Club, Assaf Baciu, co-founder and president, told BAN.  

The fintech has driven $2.5 billion in revenue for clients using its AI platform, he said, adding that the technology is used to create language that fits with the specific emotions and narratives that motivate people to interact with a proposition.  

Ally Bank Executive Director of Product Marketing and CRM David Hixon, agrees. 

“Persado has helped Ally to understand what resonates with our customers when it comes to our marketing and communications across key channels like email and web,” he said in a September release. 

Anti-fraud efforts. 60% of financial institutions are seeing measurable improvement in their cybersecurity by using generative AI, according to Google Cloud’s global survey “Generating value form generative AI.” 

“The threat landscape is evolving with bad actors using gen AI to create new attacks and exploit vulnerabilities in banking systems. But financial institutions are fighting back with their own AI-powered defenses.” Zac Maufe, global head of regulated industries at Google Cloud. 

With AI, Maufe said, financial institutions can: 

• Prioritize alerts; 

• Analyze unstructured data; and 

• Identify complex patterns that increase fraud detection.  

Call center application. Financial institutions like Discover Financial Services are using generative AI within their call centers to speed their response times. 

Additionally, FIs are deploying gen AI to summarize call notes, a task that used to be up to the call center agent, Aubrey Hawes, senior industry strategy director at cloud platform Oracle, told BAN. 

From an ROI perspective, call centers can benefit from this efficiency in two ways, he said. 

1. The call center can process more calls in one day.  
2. Some full-time employes can be eliminated without losing productivity. 

To determine whether ROI is being gained, call centers can ask whether the AI is “enabling human tasks to become more efficient,” Hawes said. 

One gen AI-driven call-center solution built for financial institutions is Hapax, which counts as its clients the $2 billion Texas First Bank and $778 million Bank of the West, both based in Texas. The AI-driven financial service platform has more than 20,000 documents, 10,000 hours of video and 230,000 conversations between bankers that offer real-time insights and answers to specific questions, Hapax Chief Operating Officer Kevin Green previously told BAN.  

Using gen AI, the virtual assistant can pull from its documents, video, conversations or regulation to help bank employees answer questions more accurately and efficiently. 

When to cut losses

As financial institutions up their investments in AI and gen AI in 2025, some are giving themselves a time limit on potential returns.  

In fact, according to the previously mentioned “From AI to ROI” report by Basware, nearly half of finance leaders say that if AI doesn’t demonstrate value within the first year, further investment is hard to justify. 

In fact Anssi Ruokonen, director of AI research and enablement at the software developer, directs FIs to: “Focus on implementations where you know you’ll get returns. … It is a learning journey: once you know what works and what doesn’t, your execution on the next project will be much better.” 

Register here for early-bird pricing for Bank Automation Summit 2025, taking place March 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn. View the full event agenda here.