EVIDENT AI INDEX REVEALS THE THREE BANKS BREAKING AWAY IN THE AI RACE 

• JPMorgan Chase & Co (1st), Capital One (2nd), Royal Bank of Canada (3rd) perform consistently strongly across all four pillars of AI maturity
• Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs follow close behind as US market bifurcates into leaders and laggards
• Expanded Index coverage sees Commonwealth Bank of Australia positioned sixth and Singapore’s DBS in tenth, with DBS taking 1st position in the AI Leadership pillar away from JPMorgan Chase
• Just two European banks – UBS Group AG and ING Groep – feature in the top ten, as the European market lags behind North America

November 15th, 2023 – LONDON, UK – For the second year running, JPMorgan Chase has been named the leading global bank for artificial intelligence (AI) maturity in the Evident AI Index. 

Created by AI benchmarking & intelligence platform Evident, the Evident AI Index is the only independent benchmark for commercial AI adoption and performance in the financial services sector. First issued in January 2023, the Index has now been expanded and refreshed to include 50 of the biggest financial institutions across North America, Europe and APAC. 

According to the new Index, JPMorgan Chase will close 2023 as the world’s leading AI bank, while Canada’s RBC has maintained its impressive performance, once again ranking in the top three. There are also three new entrants in the top ten: US bank Capital One, Australia’s CommBank, and Singapore’s DBS. 

The complete Evident AI Index top ten is as follows: 

1. JPMorgan Chase
2. Capital One
3. Royal Bank of Canada
4. Wells Fargo
5. UBS
6. CommBank
7. Goldman Sachs
8. ING
9. Citigroup
10. DBS

North America continues to dominate the AI banking race

Six of the top 10 positions in the updated Index are held by North American banks, according to Evident. Of the 15 US banks covered, eight rank in the top 20. The remaining seven banks rank 30th or lower, suggesting a bifurcation of the US market in which the lagging US banks may have considerable work to do to stay competitive in the years ahead.

There are four Canadian banks in the top 20, demonstrating the Canadian market’s strength in depth for AI maturity. 

Just two UK-headquartered institutions – HSBC (13th) and NatWest (19th) – place in the top 20 leading AI banks, with the latter overtaking Barclays (currently 22nd) since the inaugural Index back in January. BNP Paribas (12th) and Société Générale (20th) are once again the best-performing French banks, while in Spain, Santander (21st) is joined in the top thirty by BBVA (26th).

CommBank is the only Australian bank to rank in the top half of the Index, ahead of Westpac (33rd), NAB (35th) and ANZ (38th). 

Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Evident Co-Founder and CEO, said: 

“It’s been an epochal period for AI development and commercial adoption. 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. 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.

“There is no doubt that AI will shape the future of the global financial sector, and determine who will remain in the market going forward. AI is absolutely existential for the survival of the banks and given the pace of adoption, it’s critical that we’re able to track AI maturity across the banking sector, helping institutions harness the power of emerging technologies with openness and transparency, and sharing best practice so that all banks can remain competitive in the AI age.”

JPMorgan Chase leads, but challengers are emerging

JPMorgan Chase continues to radically outperform the wider market in AI research, helping to preserve its position as the banking leader for Innovation, followed in 2nd place by Capital One and RBC in 3rd. 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 Chase is the top-positioned bank for Transparency, thanks to its wide-ranging efforts to uphold and reinforce responsible AI practices across the bank. RBC maintains its impressive performance in Transparency, ranking 2nd, while it is joined in 3rd place by compatriot Scotiabank. Notably, half of the top 10 list for Transparency is dominated by new entrants, underscoring the lower barriers to entry – and widespread underinvestment – with respect to Responsible AI.

Teresa Heitsenrether, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, 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 recognized as best-in-class and we are committed to continuing to invest in these capabilities to help us serve our clients and communities better.”

Unlike the previous Index iteration, JPMorgan Chase is not the top performer across every category. The US banking giant falls to 2nd position for Talent in 2023, supplanted by new entrant Capital One, which demonstrates strength-in-depth in a number of key areas, including AI development and data engineering talent. UBS makes up 3rd place, showing strength across all areas of the talent capabilities required to scale AI. UBS is now the European leader for Talent, post-Credit Suisse acquisition, and the only European bank to occupy a top three position across any of the four pillars of AI capability.

JPMorgan Chase also loses out on the top spot in Leadership to new entrant DBS, which dominates both in terms of the bank’s external AI narrative and the AI focus of its executive team. CommBanks ranks 3rd globally for Leadership, thanks in part to its CEO’s consistent reinforcement of AI as a key pillar of the bank’s strategy, and his willingness to discuss this in external media.

Annabel Ayles, Evident Co-founder and Co-CEO said: 

“For market leaders, this is the time to double-down on their transformation and take full advantage of their dominant positioning, swelling talent pools and overall AI prowess. We’re already seeing widespread urgency across banks positioned lower in the rankings. They know they need to close the gap, some are already racing forwards, while others are gearing up for a major push in 2024. 

“Looking ahead, we expect to see more activity, more investments, more output, more strategic announcements—all of which translates to a more competitive ranking where the collective definition of AI maturity continues to advance and evolve.”

– Ends –

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Additional quotes from banks featured in the Evident AI Index

Prem Natarajan, PhD, Chief Scientist & Head of Enterprise AI, Capital One:

“At Capital One, our founding as a company was based on using data and technology to help improve the lives of millions of customers by expanding access to financial resources. Today, AI and machine learning are core to how we continue to deliver value for our customers and to how we run our business. We’re glad to be recognized in the Evident AI Index as among the leading global banks in AI, including as the top bank for AI talent. As technology and customer needs evolve, independent analyses like the Evident AI Index can be incredibly valuable to help the industry continue to leverage the next frontier of AI to drive innovation with impact at scale.”

Evident AI Index methodology

Since launching in January 2023, the Evident AI Index has quickly become established as the leading independent source of data and insight on AI adoption across the banking industry.

The Evident AI Index assesses the AI maturity of 50 of the world’s largest banks, with a minimum eligibility criterion of USD 200 billion in total assets. 

It combines extensive manual research, automated data capture from public sources, consultation across Evident’s network of AI experts, and ongoing dialogue with the featured banks.

Drawing from millions of public data points spanning 115 individual indicators, it ranks each bank across four key capability areas – Talent, Innovation, Leadership and Transparency. 

The Index is structured around four core pillars of corporate AI capability:

• Talent measures the number, density, and academic background of AI & Data employees working at each bank; as well as the visible initiatives underway to hire, retain, and develop leading AI talent (45% weighting)
• Innovation measures the steps banks are taking to drive innovation across the bank, covering academic research and patents, investments in technology and AI-first companies, as well as broader engagement in the open source ecosystem (30% weighting)
• Leadership measures the AI focus of the bank’s leadership, expressed through the company’s overarching AI narrative as well as the composition and positioning of the Executive team (15% weighting)
• Transparency measures the extent to which banks are focusing on Responsible AI (RAI), as evidenced by the publication of thought leadership, establishment of key partnerships, hiring of dedicated RAI talent, and promotion of RAI principles (10% weighting)

To learn more about Evident or receive a copy of the Evident AI Index Key Findings Report, please contact the media contacts listed below.

Headshots and infographics can be downloaded here. 

About Evident

Evident is an AI benchmarking & intelligence platform on a mission to accelerate the successful adoption of AI in business by increasing transparency around how companies are deploying AI. Learn more at Evidentinsights.com.

CEO and Co-founder Alexandra Mousavizadeh, the architect of the Global AI Index while head of Intelligence at Tortoise Media, has 20 years of experience benchmarking nations and companies on economic and technological issues, including senior roles at Morgan Stanley, Moody’s, ARC Ratings and The Prosperity Index. Co-founder Annabel Ayles brings a wealth of strategy, sales and partnerships expertise working with startups and major corporations, having previously worked as Head of Commercial Partnerships at Tortoise Media, as well as holding positions with Boston Consulting Group and National Geographic.