Financial sector ramps up GenAI use but skills & risks remain

New research from Nutanix has revealed that financial services organisations are broadly adopting generative AI (GenAI), with implementations extending well beyond chatbot applications into areas such as fraud detection, cybersecurity, and customer experience.

The findings are based on the company's seventh annual global Financial Services Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey, which assessed enterprise cloud adoption, containerisation, and GenAI trends among IT and DevOps decision-makers across the sector. Almost every respondent reported current use of GenAI, including for customer support and content development.

Widespread adoption and expanding use cases

While initial industry enthusiasm for GenAI focused on front-line tools such as chatbots, the research highlights that organisations are increasingly applying it to core operations such as automation, fraud detection, and enhancing client engagement. Nutanix noted that solutions are being used to automate workflows, generate content, and deliver customer support at scale.

However, the rapid uptake of these technologies is exposing several industry-wide challenges. Most respondents expressed concerns about their readiness to operate GenAI applications securely and at scale, with particular anxiety about data privacy and security risks.

"Financial services organisations are turning to containers and hybrid cloud not just as technology upgrades, but as strategic enablers of customer value," said Lee Caswell, SVP of Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix. "This year's ECI report highlights how these technologies are delivering measurable ROI by powering GenAI applications that enhance fraud detection, strengthen cybersecurity, and elevate customer engagement. For financial institutions, containers and hybrid cloud have become essential tools to drive innovation, agility, and trust in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

"But AI and how organisations want to use it is also changing very rapidly. While GenAI remains a part of their activities, beyond the findings in the report, our customers are telling us they have moved to adopt agentic AI and are looking to harness its potential across their organisations and in how they interact with their customers."

Infrastructure and skills lag behind

The majority of survey respondents admitted that the foundational requirements to scale GenAI are not yet fully in place. In total, 97% said their organisations need to do more to secure their GenAI models and applications, and 92% agreed their infrastructure must be modernised to support cloud-native applications and containers.

Containerisation and tools such as Kubernetes are already widely deployed, especially for GenAI workloads. Nevertheless, organisations continue to wrestle with issues such as application portability and the persistence of data silos across their operations.

Talent shortages hinder scaling

A further significant barrier for the sector is the ongoing shortage of skilled IT personnel capable of deploying GenAI from development into production environments. Nearly all respondents (98%) cited difficulty in scaling up due to insufficient expertise and integration challenges, prompting 62% to say they are actively hiring for GenAI-related roles. Many organisations highlighted the urgent need for training and upskilling existing staff.

Mixed outlook for returns

While the long-term expectations for GenAI remain positive, the immediate financial outlook is less certain. Just under 40% of those surveyed anticipated possible GenAI-related losses over the next year, while 58% expect to see returns on investment within one to three years. This highlights that many organisations see the value of GenAI as a longer-term play but are seeking more reliable ways to track and measure its impact.

Security and compliance front of mind

With increasing reliance on data-driven systems, security and compliance are rising priorities across the sector. The majority of respondents - 96% - said GenAI is already reshaping how they set data security and privacy policies. Furthermore, 90% raised concerns about security throughout the IT vendor ecosystem, pointing to the growing complexity of safeguarding data and applications in cloud environments.

The ECI study was conducted by UK-based researcher Vanson Bourne in autumn 2024, polling 1,500 IT and platform engineering leaders from a range of firm sizes and regions globally, including North and South America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific-Japan.