The EY Study – Digital Transformation 2024 – indicates that although 86% of companies in the financial sector in Poland confirm that the digitalization process of their organization is a high or very high priority, this sector differs from other branches of the economy in terms of motivation. As much as 39% of respondents cited competition as the main reason for taking action, exceeding the market average by as much as 10 percentage points (29%). The digitalization process is defined by cost reduction, indicated by 50% of surveyed companies in the financial sector, 15 percentage points more than the average. At the same time, actions are more often taken in accordance with a previously established digitalization strategy (46% vs. 39%). This allows companies to focus on key areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, in which 30% of firms in the financial sector plan to increase the budget. This is 9 percentage points more than the market average. It is therefore not surprising that already 40% of companies from this sector, over the last 12 months, gave up previously planned transformation projects in favor of AI implementation, 6 percentage points more than the economy-wide result (34%).
The findings of the EY – Digital Transformation 2024 – study suggest that for 86% of representatives of the financial sector, the digitalization process of their companies is at least a high priority. This is very similar to the average for all key market sectors (84%). However, greater differences begin to appear in the areas of planning and investment.
Almost half of the surveyed companies from the financial sector (46%) are implementing changes in accordance with the previously established digitization strategy of individual resources or processes. For comparison, the average result for the economy is 39%, which is less by as much as 7 percentage points. At the same time, only 6% of companies from the financial sector allocate less than 3% of revenue to digital transformation (the average is 10%). The vast majority – 63% – is in the range from 4 to 10%. This result is 6 percentage points higher than the overall average.
Greater investment outlays may result directly from the specific nature of the industry, characterized not only by high innovation but also competitiveness and cost-effectiveness. As many as 39% of representatives of the financial sector mentioned competition as the main motivation (10 percentage points more than the market average). This difference is even greater in the area of defining the importance of the digital transformation process. For half of the companies (50%) in the financial sector, it’s cost-cutting. In this case, the difference is as much as 15 percentage points.
“The financial sector is highly competitive, which in Poland also translates into high innovation. As a result, consumers in Poland often have access as one of the first in Europe to the most advanced solutions. This is the result of years of effort, which in recent times, along with the development of the cloud and artificial intelligence, have only accelerated. However, it is still easy to identify analogue elements in the digital world. One of them is mortgages. Digitization of this area, reducing the entire process from weeks to hours, will allow building real competitive advantages. Undoubtedly, significant changes will come in this respect soon,” says Wojciech Soleniec, Partner in the Technology Consulting team at EY Poland.
Graph 1: ‘What has become the main motivation for implementing digital transformation in your company?’
The financial sector sees the future in AI but is looking for the right skills
In terms of digital transformation priorities, companies in Poland – regardless of the sector – are unanimous. The most important factor is customer service (48% – financial sector vs. 47% – market average) and sales (42% vs. 43%). Differences are highlighted in other categories. The financial industry also highly values the impact of digitization on accounting (32% vs. 26%) and administration (25% vs. 20%).
The financial sector is distinguished by a higher overall advancement in the use of technology solutions in customer service or hyperpersonalization of offers, as well as a strong reliance on data analysis. As a result, in the next 12 months, companies from this sector more often than companies from other sectors (30% vs. 21%) plan to increase budgets in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The financial sector also operates much faster and more decisively in the field of AI. Already 40% of companies from the financial sector have declared that over the past 12 months they have given up implementing a previously planned transformation project in favor of implementing AI-based activities. The percentage for the entire economy is 34%, thus 6 percentage points less.
Advanced and innovative actions, however, involve the need to possess appropriate human competencies. What may be of concern is the fact that as many as 29% of companies from the financial sector pointed to this aspect as the main barrier to digital transformation. This is 7 percentage points more than the average for all key sectors of the economy. Furthermore, as many as 31% of representatives of the financial sector indicated that within 12 months, the smallest budget will be allocated for training employees in digital competencies. In the case of the market average, this rate was 10 percentage points lower (21%). This does not mean that the financial industry does not intend to invest in improving competencies. However, in the case of advanced solutions, it looks for highly specialized people, which is a challenge for representatives of any sector. In the field of digital competencies – due to the scale of investment so far – a lot has already been done, which means that budgets can be allocated to other areas.
“In the future, we can expect that more and more services offered by the financial industry will be automated. This process, already visible in basic aspects such as current account management, will be extended to increasingly advanced processes such as credit risk analysis based on independently acquired data. This will improve the functioning of organizations and increase the level of consumer satisfaction. However, more and more often the challenge will not be the technological aspect itself, but the need to acquire and maintain competencies for the development of highly automated processes. Therefore, budgets needed for their acquisition will increase, perhaps at the expense of expenditure necessary to increase the skills of employees in the front and back office,” summarizes Anna Kozuchowska, Partner in the Business Advisory Department and Leader of Credit Risk Area, EY Poland.
About the study
The EY – Digital Transformation 2024 – study was conducted by CubeResearch on behalf of EY using CATI and CAWI methods in the first quarter of 2024 on a sample of 494 medium and large enterprises in Poland from the manufacturing, financial, logistics and commercial sectors. The percentage of respondents from the financial industry was 22%. Respondents are responsible in the companies for the area of digital transformation, IT, finance, or are the owners/managers.
Source: https://ceo.com.pl/polskie-firmy-finansowe-inwestuja-w-ai-przewyzszajac-inne-sektory-w-adaptacji-nowych-technologii-44166
