Data analytics maintained its position as the leading AI application among financial services firms in 2024. A 2024 industry survey indicated that 57 percent of companies leveraged AI for data analytics, showing modest growth from the previous year. Generative AI experienced the strongest year-over-year adoption increase, becoming the second most widely used AI technology, with more than half of firms either implementing or evaluating the technology. Reflecting this growing embrace of AI solutions, the financial sector's investment in AI technologies continues to surge, with spending projected to reach over 58 billion U.S. dollars in 2025 and more than double to 126 billion U.S. dollars by 2028. The main benefits of AI in the financial services sector Financial services firms reported that AI delivered the greatest value through operational efficiencies, according to a 2024 industry survey. The technology also provided significant competitive advantages, cited by 42 percent of respondents as a key benefit. Enhanced customer experience emerged as the third most important advantage of AI adoption in the sector. Adoption across business segments The integration of AI varies across different areas of financial services. In 2023, operations lead the way with a 48 percent adoption rate, closely followed by risk and compliance at 45 percent. In customer experience and marketing, voice assistants, chatbots, and conversational AI are the most common AI applications. Meanwhile, financial reporting and accounting dominate AI use in operations and finance.

In 2024, security and data privacy concerns emerged as the leading challenges for banks adopting artificial intelligence. Almost ** percent of respondents identified security and data privacy as the primary AI obstacle in their businesses. Closely following this concern, ** percent of survey participants highlighted the lack of AI skills or expertise among the workforce as another critical impediment to AI implementation, and ** percent cited the difficulty in measuring return on investment.

As of May 23, 2025, Microsoft was the leading tech company by market capitalization globally at 3.38 trillion U.S. dollars. Nvidia ranked second at 3.24 trillion U.S. dollars. Tech company stocks were impacted through 2025 as a result of various global tariff threats by the United States government. Apple among the leaders Since its foundation in a Californian garage in 1976, Apple has expanded massively, becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world. The company started its origins in the PC industry with the Macintosh, but soon entered other segments of the consumer electronics market. Today, the iPhone is the most popular Apple product, although Mac, iPad, wearables, and services also contribute to its high revenues. Aiming at innovation, Apple invests every year in research and development, spanning a wide array of technologies from AI through to extended reality. Nvidia's immense growth With a focus that began with origins in gaming, Nvidia's business strategy has been transformed by demand from data centers that sit at the heart of the AI boom. The company's chips have been favored to support in the training and running of a range of large language models, most notably in the development of OpenAI's ChatGPT.