KEY FINDINGS

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1

MORE TALENT = BETTER OUTCOMES

The leading banks on AI talent have disclosed a greater volume and a more diverse set of use cases than banks with less mature talent stacks. They are also more likely to disclose estimates of ROI. Investment in AI talent translates directly into AI outcomes.

2

RECORD GROWTH OF TALENT STACK

Across the 50 banks tracked by Evident, the AI talent stack has grown 12.6% over the last six months, representing the fastest growth rate observed over the past two years. Today, 1-in-50 bank employees now work in AI and data related roles.

3

JPMC LEADS; BBVA GROWING FAST

The top-10 banks by talent volume remain unchanged, with JPMorganChase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup leading the way. Among these leading banks, BBVA is growing the fastest (+17.6%) due to expansion of its AI Factory model in Mexico and Turkey.

4

LEADERS PUSH IMPLEMENTATION

Leading banks exhibit a high ratio of Implementation : Data Engineering talent. In particular, JPMorganChase, Capital One, and Goldman Sachs pave the way, signalling a growing focus on implementing AI use cases and scaling adoption across the enterprise.

5

BANKS TO WATCH

Outside the top-10 banks, four additional banks (CommBank, BNY, TD Bank, and Lloyds Banking Group) are growing their AI talent stack even faster, averaging 21.5% growth at scale (>1,000 AI workers). This signals rapid acceleration of ongoing AI efforts.

6

TRAINING = TABLE STAKES

37 of the 50 banks (74%) tracked by Evident provide AI-specific training to employees. Increasingly, these efforts are aligned to rollouts of new Gen AI productivity tools, which often require phased trials by “super-users” or “sandboxed” environments to experiment in a risk-free setting.

7

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

Talent powerhouses are coupling bottom-up training programs with top-down continuing education initiatives. As we approach a critical milestone in sector-specific tech spending, we also see a renewed focus on appointing Board Members with deep technical expertise.