As executives report persistent cyberthreats and expanding AI adoption, financial institution leaders must strike a careful balance: Move too slowly and lose ground to competitors — or move too quickly and compromise trust.
Now in its sixth year, Wipfli’s state of the banking industry report explores how financial institutions are navigating this high-stakes environment. Wipfli surveyed 352 financial institution executives to understand their business outlook, pain points and strategic priorities for the year ahead.
Among the executives surveyed:
- Optimism is high but uneven: Nearly two-thirds (63%) expect asset growth above 5% over the next 12 months. Consistent with prior years, confidence skews with institution size, with executives from large organizations ($5B+ in assets) reporting the strongest growth projections.
- New revenue streams are gaining strategic importance: Exploring new revenue streams increased in strategic importance this year, climbing into the top three priorities. However, the leading priorities remained decidedly digital: Improving digital customer/member engagement and data analytics/AI were the first and second-highest priorities, respectively.
- Cybersecurity and fraud are leading concerns — again: Cybersecurity is the top concern for the fourth consecutive year. Nearly three-quarters (74%) experienced at least one unauthorized access incident at their institution in the past year.
- AI outcomes are meeting or exceeding expectations: Nearly 60% of executives report that AI initiatives have exceeded their expectations. Top outcome areas include fraud detection and prevention, operations and back-office productivity, and financial or risk impacts.
- Only a few expect headcount reductions from AI: Among those with AI initiatives in place, only 10% expect a net headcount reduction due to AI. Two-thirds project no change in staffing, while 21% expect a net increase in headcount to support data and AI needs.
Download the full report for additional benchmarks, plus strategic context from Wipfli advisors.
