AI Use Case Trends in Banking
Evident AI Use Case Tracker | Q3 2026
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Q3 was a record quarter for AI in banking, with 111 new use cases announced by the 50 global banks in the Evident AI Index. Banks are taking AI into new parts of the business, and agents are going deeper into core workflows. Proof of value per use case, however, is getting harder to find.
Below, we break down the top stories from the Q3 Evident AI Use Case Tracker Trends in Banking report, then take a short tour of each business line, function, sector and region. Plus, as a bonus this quarter, we take a first look at how banks across Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are putting AI to work.
KEY FINDINGS | Q3 2026
Banks expand AI into new business areas
41% of the 111 new use cases marked a bank’s first AI deployment in that business line or function, and nearly two-thirds brought a new capability to the bank. That pace suggests the reusable platforms banks have built are now helping them get new AI tools into production quickly.
Investment Banking and Commercial Banking stood out, from pitchbook tools at RBC and Bank of America to trading operations at Citi. Banks now use AI across six business lines and functions on average, up from five last quarter.
Agentic AI hits a record and moves deeper into banking workflows
Banks announced 22 agentic use cases, accounting for 20% of Q3 additions. Agents entered new areas: supporting AML investigations at TD Bank, handling collections at BBVA and assessing enterprise risk at Westpac, while cybersecurity emerged as the fastest riser. Credit applications are also progressing, from drafting credit memos at DBS and creditworthiness checks at Nordea, to piloting end-to-end business lending at CommBank.
AI value disclosure broadens, but use case outcomes remain scarce
18 banks now disclose realized or projected AI value. This quarter, CommBank and Bank of America reported for the first time, and Société Générale re-based its target to an AI-only figure.
Four banks (JPMorganChase, Bank of America, CommBank and RBC) now explicitly relate AI benefits to investment, offering a clearer view of returns. Yet only 21% of new use cases disclosed an outcome, down from 27% in Q2.
Banks buy for productivity and build for core banking
Around half of Developer Augmentation (52%) and General Productivity (51%) use cases name an external vendor, compared with just 19% in Fraud and 11% in Credit Underwriting. The pattern suggests banks retain greater ownership of core banking applications, although vendor involvement may be under-reported.
How AI is reshaping each business line
Business lines added 62 use cases in Q3, up from 48 in Q2. Retail added the most, while Commercial Banking grew fastest as agents moved into credit and into corporate clients' own workflows.
Retail & Personal Banking
Retail remains the largest business line, with 142 use cases tracked and 26 added in Q3. Assistants are crossing from answering queries to executing transactions, and the branch is emerging as the new deployment target. Customer Self-Service, Call Centre Support and Assisted Branches led the quarter's growth, with TD Bank's branch assistant cutting calls to support teams by 89%. In the full report, we dive into Customer Self-Service, where agentic assistants now complete purchases as well as answer queries.
Commercial & Corporate Banking
Commercial & Corporate Banking was the fastest-growing business line in Q3, up 31% to 63 use cases. Agents now draft credit memos for bankers, and corporate clients are starting to bring their own AI tools to their banking data. Banker Support, Customer Self-Service and Mid & Back Office Operations led growth, with DBS agents performing more than 70 tasks to produce a review-ready credit memo. The full report takes a closer look at Customer Self-Service, exploring how predictive insight is giving business clients a forward view of their finances.
Investment Banking
Investment Banking reached 55 use cases, with 13 added in Q3 and nearly half of those a bank's first in the business line. Advisory, Research and Trading Operations led growth, as AI helps bankers pitch faster, research teams model policy shifts and post-trade teams process faster. RBC's Pitchbook Creator, for example, cuts production time from weeks to days. We also dive into Advisory, looking at how banks are prioritising pitch development, real-time modelling and automated meeting prep.
Wealth Management
Wealth Management added 8 use cases in Q3, taking its total to 45. Wealth Advisor Support, Customer Self-Service and Mid & Back Office Operations drove growth, as AI turns adviser calls into client insights and speeds up onboarding for wealthy clients. DBS, for one, onboarded 20% more high-net-worth clients and halved turnaround times. The full report zooms in on Wealth Advisor Support, where AI now reaches every step around the client meeting.
Where AI is gaining traction across the bank's functions
Behind the scenes, AI is spreading through the functions that keep a bank safe and running. Compliance added the most use cases in Q3, Risk grew fastest, and agentic AI rose from 15% to 39% of new functional use cases.
Compliance
Compliance remains the largest function, with 75 use cases and 11 added in Q3. Fraud Management, AML and KYC led the quarter, as fraud defence turns to customer behaviour and AML turns to network models. HSBC's graph neural network, for example, has cut AML false positives by 30%. Our overview of Fraud Management reveals how banks now read the way customers type, swipe and hold their phones to spot scams.
IT & Security
IT & Security added 10 use cases in Q3, reaching 64 in total. Developer Augmentation and Cybersecurity Management drove growth, as coding agents take on more work and frontier AI models hunt for vulnerabilities in banks' own systems. Wells Fargo's coding agents target developers who are 50% to 2x more productive. The data also shows coding assistants are now standard, with AI moving into code review, testing and legacy rewrites.
Risk
Risk was the fastest-growing function in Q3, up 22% to 33 use cases. AI is speeding up credit decisions, from drafting commentary to auto-approving small business loans, with growth led by Credit Underwriting & Approval, Credit Risk Management and Enterprise Risk Management. BMO aims to cut underwriting time by around 50% by fiscal 2028. The full report looks closer at Credit Underwriting & Approval, where agents are cutting creditworthiness checks from 15 minutes to under one.
Bonus insight: A first look beyond the global banks
Banks in Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are taking AI to their customers through messaging apps, voice and chat. This quarter, the Tracker takes its first look at 20 LATAM banks and 25 MEA banks.
Latin America (LATAM)
Across the 20 Latin American banks on the Evident AI Index, the Tracker records 73 use cases since Q1 2024, with Retail Banking, Risk and Commercial & Corporate Banking leading growth. Banks are placing AI where customers already are: AI agents now handle more than 60% of Nubank's support conversations in Brazil, Bradesco has rebuilt its vehicle financing operation around machine learning and Itaú Unibanco’s corporate clients can now open an account en-to-end through a GenAI assistant on WhatsApp. The full report shows where customer-facing assistants are leading deployment as banks roll AI out to the whole workforce, and where banks are seeing the clearest gains.
Middle East & Africa (MEA)
Across the 25 Middle East & African banks on the Evident AI Index, the Tracker records 88 use cases since Q1 2024, with Retail Banking, IT & Security and Commercial Banking leading growth. Customer assistants now resolve most queries without a human, with Absa's assistant handling more than 90%. AI tools are also reaching whole workforces: First Abu Dhabi Bank has given every employee Copilot. Only three of the 25 banks disclose AI value across the whole bank. The full report covers what they’re reporting, and where AI is cutting credit approvals from weeks to days.
Get The Full Picture
The full Q3 report goes further, with the charts behind every finding and the complete set of standout use cases for each business line, function and region.
Evident Members also get access to the full Use Case Tracker dataset, covering every AI use case announced by the world's largest banks since 2024.
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