Exploring AI in financial services on screen.

Global survey explores AI’s future in financial services

4 November 2025

The article at a glance

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has launched the AI in Financial Services 2030 Global Surveys – a landmark worldwide study capturing intersecting perspectives from financial regulators, industry and AI vendors. Together, these insights will provide the most comprehensive view yet of AI adoption, impact, oversight and expectations for the decade ahead.

The surveys are central to CCAF’s global needs analysis study, which will combine academic rigor with frontline regulatory insight for equitable, executable outcomes. Over the coming weeks, CCAF will harness the surveys to assess the impact and opportunities of AI in financial services, partnering with the World Bank, Bank for International Settlements (BIS), IMF and the World Economic Forum with the support of the FCDO, Financial Innovation for Impact (Fii) and Ecosystem Partners – the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and CGAP on the project.

Towards global equity

AI is reshaping financial services and redefining how innovation, data and technology interact across the financial ecosystem. Financial authorities, industry institutions and AI vendors all play vital and complementary roles in this transformation – from developing cutting-edge tools and models, to applying AI in supervisory, operational and market functions, to enabling more inclusive and efficient financial systems.

The AI in Financial Services 2030 project brings these perspectives together to:

1

Understand how AI is being developed, deployed, and scaled

Explore how AI is being developed, deployed and scaled across financial authorities, financial institutions, and AI vendors, identifying shared challenges and opportunities for collaboration.

2

Inform future capacity-building programmes and research agendas

Shape programmes and agendas that strengthen technical expertise, practical knowledge, and institutional readiness for AI across all stakeholders.

3

Connect and equip decision-makers, practitioners and innovators

Bring together and equip decision-makers, practitioners and innovators with the insights, frameworks, and tools needed to harness AI for greater efficiency, transparency, and inclusion across the global financial system.

The 3-part initiative will provide foundational AI knowledge from leading experts, tailored to address the identified needs, building engagement with key stakeholders across the financial ecosystem. It will also equip financial authorities with practical technical AI skills, ensuring alignment with research insights to enhance regulatory and operational workflows using agentic and other workflow automation tools.  

On its launch, Kieran Garvey, AI Research Lead at CCAF, comments: “The AI in Financial Services 2030 Global Surveys offer a unique contribution to understanding how AI is reshaping financial services globally. For the first time, we are bringing together the perspectives of fintechs, banks, AI vendors and regulators in low- and middle-income countries alongside more advanced economies to give a more representative, global view of how AI is changing financial services, in all types of institutions, for us all.” 

 Kieran Garvey, AI Research Lead at CCAF image

For the first time, we are bringing together the perspectives of fintechs, banks, AI vendors and regulators in low- and middle-income countries alongside more advanced economies to give a more representative, global view of how AI is changing financial services, in all types of institutions, for us all.

Kieran Garvey, AI Research Lead at CCAF

Benefits for organisations

Participation in this study offers several advantages for organisations, including: 

Global visibility and engagement

Recognition of organisation names in the global report and invitations to convenings and roundtables with peers and global industry stakeholders.

Strategic insights on AI in finance

A global perspective on how artificial intelligence, in its various forms, is being applied in financial services to inform your product strategy.

Peer benchmarking and comparaison

Benchmarking of organisations’ capabilities against those of their peers across regions and sectors.

Insights for policymakers and regulators

Insights that will help regulators and policymakers worldwide better understand industry needs and opportunities.

Access to landmark research

Access to findings of a landmark global study, provided on a free, impartial and non-commercial basis.

Explore the AI in financial services 2030 surveys

Regulator survey

Organised into 2 principal components:

  • External (Market View): assesses financial authorities’ observations around AI use cases and technologies used by firms within their jurisdictions, expected opportunities and risks and the implications for competition and market structure.
  • Internal (Institutional Use and Adoption): examines institutional mandates and objectives, level of AI adoption and internal applications across core regulatory functions.

Industry survey

Organised into 3 principal components:

  • Governance, Regulation & Oversight: examines your organisation’s AI governance models, confidence in explainability, bias and fairness monitoring, current regulatory status, perception of the regulatory environment and priorities for regulatory actions.
  • Adoption, Applications & Capabilities: explores organisation’s AI adoption stage, maturity of internal use cases, technologies and functions, most advanced applications, R&D spend and capacity needs.
  • Impact, Opportunities & Risks: assesses the effect of AI on productivity, profitability, job roles, emerging opportunities, risks and changes in competition dynamics.

AI vendor survey

Organised into 3 principal components:

  • Market View & Products: gather perspectives on AI adoption maturity across financial sectors and industries as well as your AI product and service offering.
  • Client Adoption & Internal Capabilities: explores client adoption of your products alongside your internal AI capabilities.
  • Opportunities, Risks & Oversight: identifies key opportunities, risks, and competition dynamics and perceptions of regulatory environments where you operate.

Bryan Zhang, Co-founder and Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, shares: “AI is fast becoming the defining infrastructure of digital financial services, yet our understanding of its development, deployment and governance in finance remains limited and fragmented. The AI in Financial Services 2030 Global Surveys aim to connect the intersecting perspectives of regulators, financial institutions and AI vendors worldwide – creating an empirical evidence base for how AI is reshaping finance, and how we can guide that transformation towards greater inclusion, efficiency and trust.”

Bryan Zhang, Co-founder and Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance image

The AI in Financial Services 2030 Global Surveys aim to connect the intersecting perspectives of regulators, financial institutions and AI vendors worldwide – creating an empirical evidence base for how AI is reshaping finance, and how we can guide that transformation towards greater inclusion, efficiency and trust.

Bryan Zhang, Co-founder and Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance

Drew Propson, Head of Technology and Innovation in Financial Services at the World Economic Forum, adds: “Our recent Future of Global Fintech report, co-led by the CCAF and the Forum, found that 84% of fintechs now partner with traditional financial institutions, driven by shared ambitions in technology and infrastructure. This new research takes that story forward, exploring how collaborations are evolving as AI rapidly transforms financial services and providing stakeholders with critical insights to advance responsible, AI-enabled innovation worldwide.”