Why the back office comes first in AI deployments and failures that keep reappearing
- Back-office AI is where most banks start, but only 16% have a coherent strategy, meaning most investment is tactical, not by design.
- Data silos and API gaps, and organic employee adoption is the clearest signal of readiness.
67% of banks and credit unions are now implementing AI in some form, and 83% of financial institutions are increasing their AI budgets in lending and operations, according to research.And yet only 16% of institutions have developed a coherent strategy to go with it, suggesting that most AI investment is happening tactically rather than by design. Most of the burgeoning AI deployment is currently in the back office, but CTO of Q2 Holdings, Adam Blue, wonders whether this is because there is actually an advantage in choosing the back over the front or whether the risks of a customer-facing deployment deter banks from implementing Gen AI in this area: “I don’t think we know yet if this is because enabling and amplifying employee effort is higher value than direct deployment to the customer or member, or if it’s a sample selection problem driven by very real concerns around exposing customers/members directly to the AI tools given the current state of rapid change, model drift and security considerations,” he said. 