Financial Services Industry Rapidly Embraces GenAI Technology - Lasting Profits Depend on Infrastructure and Workforce Capabilities
In a groundbreaking report, Nutanix has unveiled the findings of its seventh annual Financial Services Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey. The research, conducted by U.K. researcher Vanson Bourne, reveals that the financial sector is rapidly adopting Generative AI (GenAI) and modern cloud-native infrastructure, with nearly all (98%) financial services organisations currently using GenAI applications or workloads.
The focus of real-life GenAI applications in financial services is primarily on customer support, content development, fraud detection, cybersecurity, and elevating customer engagement. This adoption is accompanied by widespread application containerization, providing agile, scalable environments for these workloads.
However, the report also highlights challenges that financial institutions are facing in keeping pace with GenAI adoption. A skills gap for managing GenAI with existing infrastructure is a major issue, and nearly all respondents (98%) face challenges scaling agentic AI from development to production, citing lack of skilled personnel and integration issues.
Infrastructure modernization is crucial for the success of agentic AI, with 92% of respondents stating their current infrastructure requires improvement. Containers and hybrid cloud are seen as strategic enablers of customer value, delivering measurable ROI by powering GenAI applications that enhance fraud detection, strengthen cybersecurity, and elevate customer engagement.
Despite these benefits, managing multiple Kubernetes® environments complicates infrastructure modernization, data silos, and application portability, indicating underlying infrastructure needs significant upgrades. Additionally, data security and privacy are top concerns as financial services organisations adopt GenAI.
To address these challenges, 62% of respondents are actively hiring for agentic AI expertise, while training and upskilling remain critical priorities. A vast majority (96-97%) of respondents acknowledge they could do more to secure their GenAI models and applications, highlighting growing security and privacy priorities reshaped by AI adoption.
The survey also reveals that financial services organisations are expanding their AI usage beyond GenAI, with a focus on agentic AI. For financial institutions, containers and hybrid cloud have become essential tools for driving innovation, agility, and trust in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
In conclusion, Nutanix’s ECI survey reveals that financial services are aggressively adopting GenAI and modern cloud-native infrastructure but face challenges with talent shortages, infrastructure complexity, and security. Nevertheless, executives expect these investments to yield significant ROI over the medium term while driving innovation and customer value in a fast-evolving digital environment.
- The financial sector is increasingly employing artificial-intelligence, particularly in areas like fraud detection, cybersecurity, and customer engagement, through the use of Generative AI (GenAI).
- Apart from GenAI, the financial services industry is also extending AI usage, with a growing focus on agentic AI.
- The adoption of GenAI in financial institutions is accompanied by challenges, such as scaling agentic AI from development to production, which are often due to a skills gap and integration issues.
- To overcome these challenges, financial services organizations are investing in hiring experts for agentic AI, recognizing that securing their GenAI models and applications is a top priority, and Modernizing infrastructure, such as adopting containers and hybrid cloud, to drive innovation in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
