76% of financial institutions are already on board the AI.
It is according to a recent report Since Excursing capital in partnership MONEY20 / 20which reveals the latest people on the adoption of AI in financial services.
At the United States Conference last year, we talked to Micky Tesfaye to the Money20 / 20 team and Lauren Kolodny of Acrew Capital to find out more.
Watch the video to get some of the latest information on how technology is used in the landscape, from startups to holders.
And, discover:
- How many banks use AI in products for customers.
- Where are the gaps to be used by startups?
- Who has adopted AI the most?
The impact of AI on Fintech
In the video, we were joined by Micky Tesfaye who is responsible for the content in Money20 / 20, and Lauren Kolodny, co-founder of Acrew Capital, who were perfectly placed to explain why the two organizations have joined forces to produce this report, what you can read hereThe main ideas discovered, and what AI means for the future of Fintech.
Why associate with this report?
Acrew saw Money20 / 20 as the ideal partner because of his status as a key meeting point for the financial industry. As Kolodny said, “everyone attends it”. The conference serves as a hub for opinion leadership, bringing together startups, banks, regulators and investors to discuss the latest trends shaping financial services.
Tesfaye added that Money20 / 20’s goal has always been to reflect the evolution of the industry. Since the launch of Chatgpt, AI has dominated conversations during their events in the world, but a large part of this discussion lacked a broader context. This report was aimed at filling this gap, offering a structured overview of how financial institutions really use AI and what it means for the future of industry.
Key results: adoption of AI in financial services
One of the most surprising conclusions was the speed with which financial institutions adopted AI. Acrew and Money20 / 20 analyzed 221 main financial services companies, according to their advertisements related to AI since January 2023. The figures were narcotic:
- 76% of these companies have announced AI initiatives.
- 51% integrated AI into customer products.
- A total of 376 AI initiatives have been launched in less than two years.
For an industry not traditionally known for the early adoption of new technologies, these statistics have expectations. Kolodny stressed that AI was not only experienced – it becomes the heart of financial products and services.
Tesfaye has echoed this feeling, noting that if media coverage often presents AI in finance as a high level discussion in slow motion, reality is much more dynamic. The report clearly indicates that the adoption of AI is not a future possibility – it now occurs at an incredible pace.
The competitive landscape for AI in finance
One of the biggest changes that AI brings to the Fintech is the way the competition takes place between holders and startups. Unlike past technological waves, such as mobile or cloud, AI’s success strongly depends on access to data. This gives financial players established an advantage, because they already have massive data sets to form AI models.
However, Kolodny stressed that there was still a lot of room for startups. Native companies AI can find opportunities by focusing on areas where holders are slower to innovate. The report highlights two specific gaps:
- Agent payments: Although the digital assistants fed by AI become more and more common, few companies have announced solutions to allow these agents to make payments independently. This could be a space where startups work.
- Gen-ai for fraud detection: Despite the rise in financial crimes focused on AI, only 7% of the companies studied actively use the generator for the prevention of fraud. Meanwhile, fraud linked to Deepfake has jumped 700% from one year to the next. This difference suggests a major opportunity for startups that can build fraud detection tools led by AI.
Tesfaye also underlined the landscape of Money20 / 20 exhibitors as proof of the impact of AI. Unlike past technological waves where holders hesitated to adopt new innovations, AI is adopted at all levels. This year’s event featured big names like Openai, Anthropic and Nvidia alongside AI startups at an early stage, all competing to shape the future of industry.
A changing state of mind: from competition to collaboration
As the adoption of AI accelerates, the traditional vision of startups against holders is evolving. While inherited financial institutions integrate AI on a large scale, they are always faced with challenges in fields such as compliance and detection of fraud. This opens the door to startups to collaborate with established players rather than just trying to disturb them.
Kolodny noted that regulatory clarity will play a big role in the future of AI in finance. As regulators, regulators better understand technology, the pace of AI innovation should increase, in particular in high issues such as fraud prevention and compliance.
A report built for industry
Beyond the ideas of the report itself, Acrew and Money20 / 20 also published a database Where users can explore AI adoption trends and execute their own analyzes. Kolodny encouraged Fintech professionals to dig into data and discover new ideas.
Tesfaye stressed that it is not only a static research part – it is a shared industry project designed to follow the impact of AI over time. By making data widely accessible, Money20 / 20 hopes to feed more informed conversations and strategic decision -making in the financial sector.
Ahead
While the conversation ended, the two speakers thought about Money20 / 20 USA’s energy. Kolodny noted that, despite occasional assertions that Fintech loses momentum, industry is clearly alive and scalable. AI has the potential to fundamentally reconstruct financial infrastructure from scratch, and the adoption rate shows no slowdown.
Tesfaye has strengthened the point with a last point to remember: AI in financial services is not a question of “if” or “when”. That’s already there.
Make sure to catch more from our major Money20 / 20 interviews here.