Why AI tools won't deliver value to banks without culture change

Two CEOs told McKinsey they spent heavily on AI tools that saw low usage.

Giving staff artificial intelligence (AI) tools won’t yield value on its own, according to McKinsey & Company partners.

“I spoke with two CEOs in the past two weeks who were frustrated—they’d spent significant money on tools that had low usage and zero impact,” said Andrea Del Miglio, a senior partner based in Milan.

Banking leaders should focus on a shift in the culture and mindset of the organisation as its people are at the center of change, said Saptarshi Ganguly, a Boston-based senior partner and leader in McKinsey’s Digital & Analytics Practice.

“That’s what banking leaders are still missing, as they’re distracted by the bright and shiny object,” Ganguly said.

Employees should be less worried about getting replaced by AI, said Klemens Hjartar, a McKinsey senior partner based in Copenhagen.

“You are more likely to be replaced by someone who knows AI than by AI itself,” Hjartar said.

Hjartar noted a plethora of new job categories that did not exist a few years ago.

“I genuinely believe we are heading toward better and more exciting jobs. I’m an optimist,” Hjartar said.

Clarity is necessary, particularly when it comes to leadership. Change is 85% people and culture, 15% technology, said Hjartar.

The skill needed is to express outcomes and not processes, Hjartar said, adding that people must know what they want, set the boundaries, and measure the results.

“It’s kind of like being married, right? You need to be very clear on your intentions and your boundaries, and remember to talk. Those are the new skills of the agentic era,” Hjartar said.

Ganguly highlighted the importance of leadership alignment, where the CEO sets the ambition whilst every member of the management team plays a role. The whole thing stalls if even one line in that chain is weak, he said.

“The CFO makes room for investment, the COO takes a front-to-back view of processes to agentify, the CTO [chief technology officer] builds the platforms, the CHRO [chief human resources officer] manages the talent equation, and the CRO [chief risk officer] embeds risk management from the start, not as an afterthought,” Ganguly said.

Del Miglio said that banks should invest in a central platform early in the AI journey.

“A central, safe, compliant platform is what gives the rest of the bank permission to experiment,” Del Miglio said.

Del Miglio said that banks have to move from individual use cases to domain-level transformations.

“Use cases are great for proof of concept, but to capture full value, you need to rethink how an entire domain works,” Del Miglio said.