JPMorgan Chase tops bank AI ranking

JPMorgan Chase has been named the leading global bank for artificial intelligence (AI) maturity in the benchmarking index from Evident AI.

Created by AI platform Evident, the AI index is a benchmark for commercial AI adoption and performance in the financial service sector. First published in January 2023, it includes 50 of the biggest financial institutions across the regions of North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific (APAC).

It combines manual research, automated data capture from public sources, consultation across Evident’s network of AI experts and ongoing dialogue with the featured banks. The index also draws from millions of public data points spanning 115 individual indicators. It ranks each bank across four capability areas: talent, innovation, leadership and transparency.

The index revealed that JPMorgan is the world’s leading AI bank, followed by Capital One, which is a new entrant since the first edition, and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

According to the latest index, North America dominates the AI banking race, with six of the top 10 positions held by North American banks – of the 15 US banks covered, eight are in the top 20. Meanwhile, there are four Canadian banks in top 20, demonstrating Canada’s strength in the AI market.

UK-headquartered institutions HSBC and NatWest ranked 13 and 19 respectvely. BNP Paribas (12) and Société Générale (20) are once again the best-performing French bank. In Spain, Santander (21) is joined in the top 30 by BBVA (26). CommBank is the only Australian bank to rank in the top half of the index, at six.

“The emergence of generative AI has helped make AI a top priority for the banks, while shareholders have begun pushing for updates on how and where these institutions are drawing value from their significant investments,” said Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Evident CEO.

“A sense of urgency is taking hold within the banks to accelerate the pace of business restructuring and ensure that the right capabilities are in place to harness the front end of AI development,” she added.

The index ranked JPMorgan as outperforming the wider market in AI research, helping to preserve its position as the banking leader for innovation, followed by Capital One and RBC. Both Capital One and RBC have shown consistently strong performance across areas such as AI patents, research and partnerships over the course of 2023.

JPMorgan is also the top-ranking bank for transparency thanks to its wide-ranging efforts to uphold and reinforce responsible AI practices across the bank. It is followed by RBC and Scotiabank.

Teresa Heitsenrether, chief data and analytics Officer at JPMorgan Chase, said: “The Evident AI index shines a light on the growing impact artificial intelligence is having on the financial services industry. We are proud that our AI talent, insights and solutions were once again recognised as best-in-class, and we are committed to continuing to invest in these capabilities to help us serve our clients and communities better.”