Digital Finance Index

Financial-services firms reporting some level of AI adoption: 81%¹

Firms reporting transformative deployment: 14%¹

Financial-services firms with agentic AI pilots or deployments underway: 52%²

Financial firms reporting complete understanding of the AI technologies they use: 34%³

AI vendors citing client data quality and completeness as a deployment challenge: 72%⁴

Legacy systems and siloed data: 46%⁴

Financial-services firms not monitoring AI models for bias or discrimination: 65%⁵

UK consumers willing to delegate financial actions to AI within pre-set rules: 20%⁶

UK consumers aware they have no formal recourse if general-purpose AI investment advice goes wrong: 40%⁷

Autonomous-agent deployment considered achieved today: 24%⁸

Expected to be achieved by 2030: 81%⁹

Sources
¹ Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge Judge Business School, The 2026 Global AI in Financial Services Report: Adoption, Impact and Risks, April 2026. Page 21: 81% adopting AI at some level; 14% describing deployment as transforming organizational strategy and competitive advantage.
² Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge Judge Business School, The 2026 Global AI in Financial Services Report: Adoption, Impact and Risks, April 2026. Page 28, Figure 1.6: 52% piloting or further along in deploying agentic AI.
³ Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority, Artificial Intelligence in UK Financial Services – 2024. Section 3.4: firms’ reported understanding of AI technologies used.
⁴ Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, p.75 Figure 5.11: data quality and completeness, and legacy systems and siloed data environments as AI deployment challenges.
⁵ Bank of England, p. 75, monitoring of AI models for bias or discrimination.
⁶ Financial Conduct Authority and Yonder Consulting, Mills Review: AI Consumer Research, 2026. Consumer research on willingness to use AI operating autonomously within pre-set financial instructions.
⁷ Financial……Ditto. Consumer research on awareness of lack of formal recourse for incorrect general-purpose AI investment advice.
⁸⁻⁹ Cambridge……Ditto. Page 126, Figure 8.3: autonomous-agent deployment considered achieved today by 24% of respondents; expected by 81% by 2030.