Financial services has emerged as a significant driver for generative AI consulting at IBM. 

“IBM Consulting partners with global financial institutions to move beyond simple AI experimentation toward full-scale enterprise deployment,” Shanker Ramamurthy, global managing partner for banking and financial markets at IBM Consulting, told FinAi News.  

The sector sits alongside health care, manufacturing and government as the biggest drivers of demand. 

IBM’s generative AI consulting business had $2 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025, accounting for nearly 25% of total consulting revenue — a signal of rapid adoption across industries.

The consulting business helps clients scale AI in production environments, Shanker Ramamurthy, global managing partner for banking and financial markets, told FinAI News.  

“Our objective is to bridge the gap between ‘sandbox’ testing and real-world scaling,” he said, pointing to uses across operational efficiency, risk mitigation and customer experience. 

The surge in demand aligns with broader growth in IBM’s consulting unit. The company reported consulting revenue of about $5.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, with steady performance across other quarters as enterprises ramp up AI investments. 

AI hurdles 

Despite the momentum, banks face structural and strategic challenges deploying AI at scale. 

“The most significant hurdle is a ‘technology-first’ bias,” Ramamurthy said, adding that projects often fail when tools are prioritized over business outcomes. 

Common challenges include: 

• Legacy constraints — Fragmented data silos and outdated core systems;  

• Trust gap — Maintaining customer trust while automating decisions;  

• Relationship risk — Losing direct customer engagement as AI interfaces become dominant; and  

• Scaling complexity — Moving from pilots to production-grade deployments.  

IBM Consulting addresses these challenges through a technology-agnostic approach, deploying watsonx alongside third-party and open-source models depending on client needs. 

Banks that use IBM for AI consulting include: 

• $568 billion PNC; 

• $222 billion Caixabank; and 

• $877 billion State Bank of India. 

The opportunity for AI consulting lies in unifying financial data across accounts, payments and investments into a single ecosystem, allowing banks to “solidify their role as the customer’s primary financial partner,” Ramamurthy said. 

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