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The AI boardroom gap in Financial Services

88% of organizations use AI. Just 39% report any EBIT impact. This report explains why — and what leaders in finance can do about it.

88%

of organizations use AI in at least one function.

39%

report EBIT impact— often single-digit percentages.

2x

AI showed 2x the amount of security risk violations vs. human projects.

ING (bank) logo

AI is everywhere. Maturity is rare.

There’s a widening gap between bold AI ambition and reality. Most FSI organizations aren’t failing at AI because of the technology, but because their foundations can’t support it.

01

The gap is real

88% of FSI organizations are using AI in at least one business function, and 64 % say that AI is enabling their innovation. However, at the enterprise level, just 39% report EBIT impact— often single-digit percentages.

02

Boards need a shared view

Only 12% of C-suite leaders can identify the right controls for common AI risks. Boards can’t govern what they can’t see. In financial services, a shared view has to extend beyond enterprise IT to the software in customer-facing systems, core banking infrastructure, and regulated processes.

03

Regulatory pressure is rising

57% of organizations cite non-compliance with AI regulations as their top AI risk. And the rules keep changing by region. In financial services, AI compliance rarely stands alone: it intersects with operational resilience obligations, prudential requirements, and sector-specific regulations such as DORA and EBA guidelines.

04

AI systems introduce new security risks

AI generates 2x more security violations than humans. And only 29% of organizations have formal oversight of AI-generated code. Leaders in finance should bolster existing security management processes instead of treating AI security risks in isolation.

05

AI coding needs human oversight

AI can generate large and structurally maintainable software systems. However, only a small fraction of generated systems compile or run without modification, limiting practical significance and end-to-end usability. 72% of AI systems in production score below quality thresholds — creating risks boards may not know about.

06

AI systems are present but not widely adopted in enterprise

From all the systems (in production) SIG has analyzed in 2025, roughly 1.5% qualify as an AI system. Of those AI systems, 70% are traditional AI /ML systems and 15% agentic AI systems. 72% of AI systems score below our recommended build-quality threshold.

Five chapters. One boardroom-ready view.

Written for boards, CISOs, and CTOs in financial services — grounded in SIG’s analysis of 400+ billion lines of code across 30,000+ systems.

01 /
The need for AI governance
Strategy & oversight

Only 18% of banking leaders are confident they’d pass an independent review of their AI controls. Inside: the one-page test every board should be able to answer — what you have, where it runs, who owns it, and how it’s controlled.

Chapter 1 — governance
02 /
Compliance snapshot
Regulation & standards

57% name non-compliance as their top AI risk (EY), and in FSI it never stands alone. A global map of the EU AI Act, DORA, EBA, US, UK, and APAC rules, plus the ISO standards (including ISO/IEC 5338, co-developed by SIG) emerging as the shared language across borders.

Chapter 2 — compliance
03 /
AI-assisted development
Speed vs. control

Reported impact swings from a 19% slowdown to a 26% speed-up. Only 29% of organizations report having formal oversight or processes to assess AI-generated code. What separates the two outcomes is governance, not tooling.

Chapter 3 — development
04 /
AI system engineering
Quality & readiness

72% of AI systems in production score below SIG’s build-quality threshold. Why “in production” isn’t the same as “production-ready” for the systems running fraud detection, credit scoring, and regulatory reporting — and what good actually looks like.

Chapter 4 — engineering
05 /
AI systems & security risks
Exposure & assurance

With attacks getting faster and cheaper, and AI-generated code shipping with double the security violations of human code, the exposure is widening on both sides. In this chapter: the three risks boards can’t ignore and how to extend the security you already have instead of building a separate AI-only framework.

Chapter 5 — security

Featuring perspectives from ABN AMRO, NautaDutilh, and code4thought.

Download the report
Financial services customers are going to benefit immensely from AI… To get there takes discipline, strong leadership and organizational flexibility. Discipline to stick to choices and true value cases to avoid forever chasing the next big thing.
Jean-Paul van Deursen
Manager Center of Expertise Software Development, ABN AMRO Bank N.V.
Discipline Strong leadership Organizational flexibility True value cases ESG impact
Jean-Paul van Deursen — Manager Center of Expertise Software Development, ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

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