Wolters Kluwer Survey Indicates Financial Institutions that Align With Regulators Are Able to Adopt AI More Successfully

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wolters Kluwer Financial & Corporate Compliance today published the results of a new survey of 148 financial institutions identifying regulatory clarity and talent development as critical enablers in successful AI adoption within the banking industry. The Q1 2026: Banking Compliance AI Trend Report shows that while approximately 31.8% of institutions surveyed have deployed AI/ML technologies into production, only 12.2% describe their AI/ML strategy as “well-defined and resourced.”

“Banks are moving quickly to embed agentic AI, potentially at the expense of clear strategy and AI governance,” said Atul Dubey, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions. “Our findings underscore the critical need for collaboration with regulatory and compliance experts to ensure that strategic goals, governance and transparency agendas are advanced concurrently with agentic AI adoption – at scale - to drive sustainable success.”

Other findings from the latest Banking Compliance AI Trend Report include:

• A substantial number of financial institutions (46.6%) point to operational efficiency as their primary AI and machine learning goal. However, there appears to be urgency around goals such as competitive advantages (10.1%) and customer experience improvements (6.8%).

• When asked what would most help advance their AI or machine learning strategy, more than half of respondents (58.8%) prioritized regulatory guidance, followed by technical training (45.9%), and industry benchmarks (37.2%).

• Only 35.8% of financial institutions surveyed have established internal policies for ethical AI use, while another 33.8% of respondents indicated that they have policies in development.

• Respondents cited explainability and transparency (28.4%) and bias/discrimination as their most acute regulatory concerns, followed by data privacy (21.6%) and fair lending (18.2%). Just 26.4% expressed confidence in their AI or machine learning initiatives with regulatory requirements, compared to the 48% of respondents who said they were somewhat confident.

• Data infrastructure also remains a critical bottleneck, as only 9.5% of respondents report being “very prepared” to support AI and machine learning with their existing data infrastructure, while 48 percent characterize themselves as “somewhat prepared.”

Wolters Kluwer Financial & Corporate Compliance provides expert services and solutions to help financial services and corporate professionals maintain ongoing compliance requirements, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information solutions, software and services for professionals in healthcare; tax and accounting; financial and corporate compliance; legal and regulatory; corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2025 annual revenues of €6.1 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 21,100 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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