AI to Unlock US$1T of Additional Value Each Year for Banks: McKinsey

For global banking, artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially deliver up to US$1 trillion of additional value each year, boosting revenues through increased personalization of services, lowering costs through efficiencies, and uncovering new and previously unrealized opportunities through the use of data, says McKinsey & Company. In a post titled AI-bank of the future: Can banks meet the AI challenge?, McKinsey says that banks have continuously adapted to the latest technology innovations throughout the years, and as the industry heads towards the AI-powered digital age, incumbents must adopt AI at scale and become so-called "AI-first banks." Several trends are accelerating banks' transition towards becoming AI-first, it says, with the first one being customers' rapid adoption of digital banking. COVID-19 has further boosted the adoption of digital banking with use of online and mobile banking channels surging an estimated 20 to 50% in the first few months of the pandemic. The emergence of digital ecosystems and so-called "super apps" is also changing the way consumers discover, evaluate and purchase banking products and services, it says.