Despite the investment that financial institutions already are making or planning to make in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, 46% of IT leaders in the industry have yet to develop a clear strategy to modernize their network, a new AT&T survey found. In fact, just 12% of the 350 senior IT executives could state categorically that such a strategy even exists.

Nearly 7 in 10 respondents expect their computing power needs to rise in the next three years, while 28% expect there to be no increase in computing power needs. René Dufrene, General Manager of Financial Solutions at AT&T Business, said that while network modernization is underway at larger institutions, many IT chiefs in the industry are concerned about their networks’ ability to support the AI, data analytics, internet of things and other technology capabilities they are developing.

“As customer needs shift as part of the ongoing digital transformation, the network evolves in parallel,” Dufrene said. “Customers require more processing and storage capabilities at the edge of their networks. As a result, network modernization is top of mind, with SD-WAN, edge computing and cloud application infrastructure in line for considerable new investment in the next few years.”

The prioritization of these network capabilities, in particular, is driven by the nature of the financial services industry. Dufrene explained that the use of emerging technologies to improve customer experiences, which has been an industry-wide focus of late, requires virtualized network services, edge computing and the migration to the cloud.

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“Financial institutions are working to provide more personalized services – in branch or office, online, through mobile apps and via their contact centers,” Dufrene said. “Workloads are moving to public and private clouds as core banking, insurance, wealth and payment systems are being redesigned and re-architected to provide new and more efficient services to clients.”

Whereas 31% of survey respondents treated AI as a priority this past year, 48% said they will be doing so over the next three years. Less than 1 in 5, however, think AI use cases can be adequately supported by networks today. When it comes to robotic process automation – another investment priority for 26% of firms – confidence in network support is similarly limited. Respondents also worried about the adequacy of network support for more established technologies like IoT and data analytics.

“Several of these technologies are relatively new, adding to the complexity,” Dufrene said. “However, the payoff is beneficial in terms of providing enhanced, more personalized services to the financial institution’s clients.” Operational efficiencies also can be obtained, helping the bottom line, he added.

Asked why there’s such a gap between plans to invest in new technologies and the existence of a strategy to support those new technologies, Dufrene said driving digital transformation initiatives across the board is difficult and requires investment – and all of this is happening at relatively high speed for large institutions. “This leads to prioritization,” he said. “What may be perceived as a disconnect could be more about prioritization.”

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. For example, 63% of respondents expect their networks will have edge computing capabilities in three years, a sizable jump from the 22% who claim to have them today. In addition, six in 10 respondents said their networks will feature cloud-based application infrastructure in three years, up from 39% today.