AI is all the buzz in financial services right now, but only a little over one in 10 FIs around the world said they are gaining “significant value” from it, at least according to one recent survey.

In a study titled Competing in the Cognitive Age: How companies Will Transform Their Businesses & Drive Value through Advanced AI, just 12% of FI executives said AI has made a noticeable impact on their institution.

That means almost 90% of FIs said they are not seeing “significant value” from AI yet. The good news, however, is that 40% of respondents said they expect AI initiatives of their organizations to reap “significant” benefits in the next two years.

For the 12% of FIs that are currently receiving value from AI, the top three areas are risk and compliance (47%), decision making (43%) and cost cuts (43%).

In two years, however, AI’s prominence in risk and compliance is expected to decrease, albeit slightly, and FIs expect to see a lot more AI application in improving productivity and reducing time-to-market for its services.

The report, which was released last week, also shows that investment in pure-play AI projects is not as high as one would expect, given all the noise around the technology. According to the report, FIs worldwide spend an average of $29 million per pure-play AI initiative, and that number is expected to increase by 7% to $31 million in two years.

Also Read: Banks Won’t Skimp on Technology Spend Despite Bleak Economic Predictions

Given that major banks in the U.S. such as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America spent $11 billion and $12 billion respectively on technology last year, this is not a big amount.

Read the full report here.

This survey was conducted by think tank ESI ThoughtLab and consultancy firm Protiviti between August and September 2018. For the report, 300 executives were surveyed, of which 25% were from the financial services industry.

In terms of markets, not surprisingly, FIs in China and the rest of Asia are expected to be leaders in AI adaption by 2021, with Europe and North America trailing behind.

Join us for Bank Innovation Ignite 2019 on March 11-12 at the Hyatt Olive 8, Seattle. Register here