What are banks and credit unions actually prioritizing when it comes to AI?
York Public Relations’ 2026 State of AI survey provides a useful answer—and it is considerably more practical than much of the industry hype.
Respondents ranked seven functional areas for AI investment over the next 12 to 24 months. Fraud detection, risk management and compliance ranked first with an average priority score of 3.12. Back-office automation followed closely at 3.15. Customer service ranked third at 3.35, followed by lending at 3.38.
Internal knowledge and employee productivity tools ranked fifth. Digital banking and self-service ranked sixth. Sales, relationship management and cross-sell ranked seventh.
Risk and Efficiency Come First
The pattern is clear.
Institutions are prioritizing AI in high-volume, high-cost areas where mistakes are expensive and the value of automation can be measured.
Fraud is an obvious example. Financial institutions must continuously monitor activity, investigate suspicious transactions, document decisions and adapt to changing threats. AI’s ability to analyze large volumes of information quickly makes the use case relatively straightforward.
Back-office automation follows a similar logic.
Revenue-generating applications, by comparison, rank much lower.
AI Is Being Asked to Fix Today Before Inventing Tomorrow
The findings suggest institutions are looking for AI to improve how they operate today before using it to fundamentally reinvent how they compete.
That does not mean customer-facing or revenue-oriented AI will remain low priorities forever.
It means institutions appear to be building confidence in areas where the business case is easier to define and the operational need already exists.
For AI providers, that should shape both product strategy and marketing.
The first question buyers are asking may not be, “What is the most transformative thing AI can do?”
It may be, “Where can AI solve a problem we already know we have?”