Acrew Capital and Money20/20 Index Finds 76% of Financial Service Companies Have Announced an AI Initiative

167 out of 221 top financial service companies globally have initiated AI initiatives since January 2023, according to the inaugural​​ “ALL IN ON AI: Financial Services Adoption Index 2024”, a new report launched by Acrew Capital and Money20/20 at its US show in Las Vegas. For financial services, an industry that is heavily regulated and therefore typically cautious to implement new technology, this rapid adoption indicates a fundamental change in how money is conceived, delivered, and experienced.

Significantly, 46% of these institutions are actively employing Generative AI in their core customer-facing products, underscoring how the technology is fundamentally reshaping value propositions across the sector. The report highlights AI’s swift ascent as a strategic imperative in financial services, analyzing 376 publicly announced AI initiatives from over 220 leading public and private firms and features case studies from key players such as bunq, Chime, Gusto, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Vanta, and Xero.

The index, a collaboration between Acrew Capital, an early-stage investment venture capital firm, and Money20/20, the world’s leading fintech show, aims to uncover who creates and sustains value in financial services through AI. Both organizations hold a unique vantage point that can equip industry leaders with an in-depth analysis of the ecosystem, enabling them to benchmark their AI initiatives and refine their strategies. The insights provided are equally valuable for fintech entrepreneurs looking to identify the most promising opportunities for disruption.

Key Findings:

• Depth at the Top, Breadth Across the Board: Early leaders set a blistering pace, with the top five companies – Block, Intuit, J.P. Morgan, Chime, and Stripe – accounting for 15% of the total initiatives. Block stands out as the most active player, embedding AI in its operations, particularly within Square’s tools for sellers. Tech-driven and data-rich challengers like Chime, Nubank, Xero and Ramp punch above their weight relative to scaled counterparts. Chime, the top “neobank” in AI, improves customer experience with its AI chatbot, handling 70% of support interactions and saving 91.5 million minutes last year, leading to a 40% rise in customer support satisfaction and faster resolution of disputes and fraud cases.
• CFO Software Takes the Cake: CFO software companies have emerged as the undisputed leader in AI adoption, driven by the desire for cleaner data ingestion, data reconciliation and predictive insights. Since January 2023, 86% of the companies have successfully embedded AI into their customer-facing products. One stalwart example is Xero’s JAX, a Gen AI-powered business companion launched as a beta in August 2024, designed to streamline accounting tasks through mobile-first experiences across WhatsApp, email and SMS.
• Wall Street Embraces Generative AI: 93% of the 15 initiatives announced by tech firms on Wall Street were centered around Generative AI. Notably, FactSet and Bloomberg are creating proprietary large language models (LLMs), drawing a definitive line in the sand by staking their claim as AI producers rather than simply consumers or users of AI.
• Motives: A Surprising Blend of Growth and Efficiency: Analysis reveals a compelling dichotomy in the motivations driving AI initiatives among financial services companies. 57% of the companies profiled are leveraging AI to generate revenue and unlock growth opportunities – that is a testament to the technology’s transformative potential and the industry’s (previously underestimated) willingness to be bold. Heavily regulated industries, such as Banking, Credit & Lending, and Insurance, are more likely to focus on optimizing processes and cost-cutting initiatives.
• Public vs. Private Companies: Different Strategies, Same Goals: Public companies are 67% more likely to announce AI initiatives than their private counterparts, though the gap narrows to 37% when it comes to generative AI projects, often driven by the need to signal forward-thinking leadership in technology to investors. Private companies are nearly twice as likely to prioritize revenue-generating initiatives over cost-reduction measures. Public firms may have the advantage in resources and visibility, but private companies, driven by the need for agility and bottom-line impact, often lead when it comes to the practical application of AI for revenue generation.
• Opportunity for AI Native Entrants: AI-native startups are well-placed to disrupt financial services, particularly in fraud prevention and wealth management. U.S. fraud losses are projected to surge from $12.3 billion in 2023 to $40 billion by 2027, yet just 7% of companies use AI-driven solutions, presenting a clear opportunity. In wealth management, generative AI could democratize financial advice by optimizing investments, debt, and tax decisions, lowering costs for the mass affluent. Despite its potential, only 57% of firms have adopted AI, leaving considerable scope for innovation.

On the launch of the index, Scarlett Sieber, Chief Strategy Officer at Money20/20 said, “Some technologies shift the goalposts—AI is changing the game. Since 2022, across our three shows in Asia, Europe, and the US, we have witnessed a recurring tension: immense excitement and investment in AI tempered by a lack of clarity on its practical applications, regulatory implications, and long-term business impact, revealing an urgent need for a comprehensive mapping of this rapidly evolving landscape. We are deeply grateful to the Acrew team for their incredible efforts in bringing this endeavor to fruition and we look forward to offering further insights in our future reports.”

Lauren Kolodny, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Acrew Capital said, “Financial services has long been encumbered by the same products and core systems that should have been deprecated alongside the 1970s mainframes they were built on. For a while now, I have had a sneaking suspicion that AI might be the cataclysmic technology that forces our industry to rebuild from the ground up. Until recently, that suspicion wasn’t supported by data. Today, that changes. With our inaugural AI Index, launched in partnership with Money20/20, we gain insight into not only what financial service companies are currently doing with AI — but where new AI-native startups could step in. The data tells a compelling story but the conversations we had while building this report make me more bullish than ever – the financial services industry’s best days lie ahead.”