GenAI now dominates UK financial services AI landscape, BoE and FCA survey finds
GenAI now dominates UK financial services AI landscape, BoE and FCA survey finds #
Generative artificial intelligence has become the most widely deployed AI technology in UK financial services, according to the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority’s fourth joint survey on AI and machine learning, published on 26 October 2026.
The report draws on responses from firms in banking, insurance, and asset management. Generative AI accounts for 56% of all AI systems in use across respondent firms, compared with 17% for foundation models in 2024. Overall AI adoption reached 86% of respondents, up from 75% in the prior survey. Among the largest firms, 94% reported at least one production AI system in operation.
Operations and IT accounted for approximately 31% of all reported systems, up from around 22% in 2024, and remained the primary area for AI deployment. Risk and compliance also saw substantial generative AI activity. No other individual business area accounted for more than 11% of reported systems.
Eighty percent of respondents reported live AI agent deployments, with a further 14% planning to introduce them within the next 12 months. Of those running agents, 80% said the systems operated in a decision-support capacity, recommending actions while leaving humans to make and execute final decisions rather than acting independently.
AI deployment was concentrated among a small number of firms. While almost half of respondents reported ten or fewer AI systems, the top ten firms accounted for 43% of all systems logged in the survey. A similar pattern appeared in cloud and compute hosting, where a small number of providers supply the infrastructure underpinning most deployments.
The BoE and FCA noted concentration risks and the gradual extension of agent autonomy as areas under continued monitoring.
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