Fintech Forward Newsletter - Issue 33

In this month’s newsletter we examine the increasing cost of AI and strategies for delivering ROI in financial services. We consider whether banks are becoming too reliant on a small group of AI technology companies, how private foundational AI models could reshape competitive advantage, and how leaders can move beyond experimentation with AI to delivering real tangible value.

Data from Moody’s highlights how banks are becoming increasingly dependent on a relatively small group of technology and cloud providers, raising concerns around vendor concentration, resilience, lock-in and rising costs. At the same time, the cost of running sophisticated AI is climbing as agentic systems consume more tokens and pricing continues to rise. For financial institutions, the question is no longer simply whether to adopt AI, but to ask whether it delivers a measurable return, and whether “good enough” technology may be the smarter choice.

Forrester highlights how the competitive landscape is changing. Banks and fintechs are recognizing the potential value to be gained from developing their own private AI models trained on proprietary transactional data and customer interactions – creating real intelligence that can underpin the delivery of advisory experiences and proactive support. But not every organization has access to the volume of data or AI expertise required, so the question becomes when best to build and when to buy.

As leaders navigate the AI landscape ahead, the upcoming Gartner IT Symposium, under the theme Ignite Intelligence, explores how best to combine human creativity with AI to increase agility, overcome disruption and deliver lasting value.