Financial services need resilience for AI success. Is their network up to the task?
05 February 2026 · 4 minute read
The financial services industry is widely using technology for process and workflow transformation to generate new value and remain competitive. Technology investment is central for the financial services industry, with McKinsey calculating that banks alone spend around US$600 billion on technology annually.
AI is a key part of this, with a recent Omdia survey finding that 77% of respondents in the financial services industry have deployed at least one AI model. The network is key to the success of AI and other technology initiatives. Analyst IDC says that technology innovation and business resilience in the financial services industry depend on real-time scalable connectivity and AI-ready infrastructure.
The financial services industry is integrating AI into a wide range of systems, including trading platforms, risk modelling, and fraud detection. These workloads require high resiliency and predictable network performance, not just raw bandwidth.
Key findings
AI use
In the financial services sector 77% of survey respondents use at least one AI model.
Network investment
The top three network investment drivers for financial services are greater reliability (56%), more flexibility (44%) and higher performance (41%).
Bandwidth consuming applications
The three biggest bandwidth consuming applications in financial services are payment processing (34%), enterprise operations (34%) and high frequency trading (27%).
Downloads
Read our financial services use case that draws on original research from Omdia to find out how and why the industry is planning to upgrade its networks for the AI age.
