Poland’s financial sector is the most advanced in implementing artificial intelligence, with 52% of companies in the industry already having their first deployments behind them, according to a new EY study. Generative AI is being used to automate processes, support developers in writing code, and enhance marketing activities, among other applications. Sector representatives say the testing phase may continue for another two to three years, but after that AI is expected to become a routine part of day-to-day work in banks. A well-defined strategy remains crucial to the success of AI implementation.
“We are developing AI-based solutions in banking quickly. We need to implement them iteratively, which means launching the first MVP [minimum viable product], but immediately afterwards we have to think about scale and how these solutions should continue to evolve in order to cover the entire organisation,” Karol Tajduś, Director of the AI Transformation Department at Bank Pekao SA, told Newseria news agency.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming the foundation of banks’ technological transformation. In KPMG’s global study Intelligent Solutions in the Banking Sector, 51% of leaders at financial institutions said AI is fundamentally changing how their organisations operate. Meanwhile, 80% of executives believe banks that adopt artificial intelligence will gain a competitive advantage over those that do not. The most commonly cited reason for implementing AI is cost reduction, with 68% of organisations treating lower costs as their primary objective, while 42% focus on improving customer experience.
“Generative AI supports all processes, automates them, helps developers write code, and supports the generation of new ideas or marketing campaigns. Machine learning, meanwhile, has long been helping us, for example in credit scoring,” Karol Tajduś said.
According to KPMG analysts, artificial intelligence is now most valuable where speed, accuracy, and scalability of decisions matter. Banks use it most often in lending processes, for example in assessing creditworthiness, risk analysis, and detecting potential fraud. Advanced algorithms also support the personalisation of offers and communication with customers by analysing behavioural and financial data in real time. AI is also used in combating financial abuse, where it can quickly identify irregularities and anomalies. It is also increasingly supporting customer service automation, for example through intelligent chatbots and recommendation systems.
EY’s new report, How Polish Companies Are Implementing AI, shows that the financial sector is the domestic leader in implementing this technology. More than half of companies have already completed their first deployments. The report’s authors note that the scale of investment is hardly surprising, given that the sector operates on vast amounts of data, making AI a natural tool for accelerating and simplifying data processing and analysis. However, 57% of respondents said the benefits had not met their expectations. EY experts believe this may be due to the scale and complexity of implementations, regulatory constraints, and insufficient data readiness and quality.
“If a business wants to implement artificial intelligence just for the sake of having it, without a clear idea of what it is supposed to deliver and how it is meant to change the business, then the process is unlikely to succeed,” the Pekao SA expert said.
Some 60% of surveyed companies in the financial sector say they have an AI strategy or roadmap in place within their organisation.
When asked about barriers to adoption, representatives of banks in Poland pointed primarily to the sensitivity of the data they handle. The use of AI must therefore comply with strict regulations and data protection standards. According to the study, 43% of companies say regulatory constraints are the biggest challenge.
“Regulations do not slow down the progress of artificial intelligence. It is a mistaken belief that because the European Union has regulations, we cannot do anything. The United States also has regulations — they simply take the form of lawsuits filed when something has been implemented incorrectly. In the EU, meanwhile, we are trying to do this proactively,” Karol Tajduś said. “In my opinion, regulations are very often used as an excuse for not doing something. They are not restrictive enough to actually prevent us from moving forward.”
Another frequently cited barrier is security concerns, identified by 39% of financial sector representatives.
“The risks related to artificial intelligence are described in the AI Act, so that is what we should refer to. These risks are linked, for example, to the protection of the data we work on. In addition, artificial intelligence, such as large language models, can be hacked,” said the Director of AI Transformation at Pekao SA. “So the risks in AI are similar to those in any other software we use, while the success and benefits are difficult to quantify because there are so many of them.”
KPMG’s study from last year shows that global spending on artificial intelligence is set to rise rapidly. Around 70% of banking institutions worldwide plan to increase their budgets in this area, with 38% expecting spending to grow by more than 20%.
“The next three years will still be a period when we can experiment a little and test what AI will be useful for. It will optimise our work, because we will not need to read every email or take notes from meetings, and we will be able to code faster. But in three years, artificial intelligence will already be required. We will be far more efficient in our work, and in five years even more so. The use of artificial intelligence in daily work will be taken for granted, and that is simply how we will work,” Karol Tajduś said.
