At the Portfolio Financial IT 2026 conference, Schenk Tamás, Partner at Deloitte, presented findings from the Deloitte State of AI study. Now in its fourth year, the survey gathered the views of 3,200 senior executives.
The results paint a mixed picture of AI's impact. Close to two-thirds of respondents reported improvements in efficiency and productivity after adopting AI, but far fewer saw cost reductions — positive responses on cost savings were about 30 percentage points lower when specifically asked. Revenue effects are even more limited: while there are good examples of improved customer experience, fewer than one in five managers reported revenue growth attributable to AI.
In software development the gains are clearer: generative AI has delivered 40–60% efficiency improvements. Deloitte's technology team has also streamlined code reverse-engineering, a capability that becomes particularly useful when senior experts leave or during vendor transitions.
Concrete banking use cases
- KYC (Know Your Customer): the showcased solution can query company registries in 12 countries digitally, and according to Schenk Tamás, "after tens of thousands of analyses and 200 users" the cost per case can fall below 15 euros.
- Lending automation: a Polish example uses a roughly twenty-agent system for document understanding and identification; applied to 30,000 transactions a year, this approach can lead to "several million euros" in annual savings.
- Voice banking assistant: the conference demo included a voice-based banking assistant developed by Deloitte in collaboration with ElevenLabs. ElevenLabs has proven experience in this area — they handle more than 4 million calls for Revolut's English-language customer service.
Integration, data and human challenges
While companies show over 30% readiness in strategy, data management and governance for AI adoption, the biggest challenge lies in human resources. The share of employees with access to copilot-like tools rose from 30% to 60% in the past year, yet Schenk Tamás warned that organisations have done "very little" to rethink roles and processes in response.
He stressed that a key upcoming challenge will be what career propositions firms can offer both younger and older employees in the AI era.
Conclusion
Deloitte's study indicates that AI already produces measurable benefits in parts of the financial sector — notably software development, KYC processes and lending automation — but broad-based revenue growth and cost reduction remain limited so far. Beyond technology, successful scaling will depend on effective integration, data and governance practices, and on rethinking roles and career paths for the workforce.
