AI Emerges as Finance’s Leading Growth Driver, Lloyds Survey Finds

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<div class="eyebrow">Survey · Tech & AI</div>

<h1>AI Has Become Finance's Primary Engine of Growth</h1>

<p class="standfirst" style="color:#ECE7FF !important;">A landmark tenth-anniversary survey by Lloyds Bank finds sector confidence at multi-year highs, with artificial intelligence now the defining force reshaping UK financial services.</p>

<span class="pill">Fintech360hub Desk</span>

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<h3>The Brief</h3>

<p style="color:rgba(255,255,255,.92) !important;">Lloyds Bank's tenth annual sentiment survey of more than 100 senior UK financial services executives reveals that growth expectations have surged across every time horizon, driven primarily by a dramatic embrace of technology. In 2026, 77% of leaders cite technology investment as a key growth driver — up from just 25% two years ago — and 93% identify AI and machine learning as the most consequential forces facing the sector. Investment plans are following suit, with 91% expecting to increase AI spend within the next twelve months.</p>

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<p class="lead">Finance leaders in the UK are entering the second half of the decade with a confidence not seen in years — and they are pointing squarely at artificial intelligence as the reason why.</p>

<p>Lloyds Bank's tenth annual Financial Institutions Sentiment Survey, drawn from responses by more than 100 senior executives across asset and wealth management, insurance, banking and financial sponsorship, paints a picture of an industry moving decisively from experimenting with technology to deploying it at scale.</p>

<h2><span>Confidence is climbing across every time horizon</span></h2>

<p>The headline figure from this year's survey is striking: 94% of respondents now expect their organisations to grow over the next decade, up sharply from 81% who said the same in 2025. The improvement is not confined to long-range optimism either — five-year growth expectations have risen from 83% to 92%, while the share of executives forecasting growth over the coming twelve months has climbed from 54% to 67%.</p>

<p>That broad-based uplift across short, medium and long-term horizons suggests the confidence is structural rather than cyclical. Leaders appear to believe their institutions have found durable growth levers, not merely a favourable market moment.</p>

<div class="ledger-row"><span class="fig">94%</span><span class="desc">of executives anticipating business growth over the next decade</span></div>

<div class="ledger-row"><span class="fig">77%</span><span class="desc">citing technology investment as a key growth driver in 2026, vs 25% in 2024</span></div>

<div class="ledger-row"><span class="fig">93%</span><span class="desc">identifying AI and ML as the most significant forces shaping UK financial services</span></div>

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<h2><span>Technology's role has shifted from option to imperative</span></h2>

<p>Perhaps the most telling data point in the survey is the trajectory of technology as a cited growth driver. In 2024, only one in four respondents named technology investment as a meaningful contributor to growth. By 2025, that had risen to 41%. In 2026, it stands at 77% — a figure that reflects how thoroughly digital capability has moved from the periphery of strategic planning to its centre.</p>

<p>Lisa Francis, Global Head of CIB Coverage at Lloyds, frames this momentum as a response to uncertainty rather than a product of easy conditions. Financial institutions, she argues, are building resilience and competitive advantage precisely by doubling down on the capabilities that will define the decade ahead — AI, data infrastructure, talent and international reach. The pivot is deliberate and durable, not opportunistic.</p>

Growth in the next decade will be shaped by the ability to adapt, invest and scale new capabilities — not simply by moving fastest.

<cite>— Lisa Francis, Global Head of CIB Coverage, Lloyds Bank</cite>

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<h2><span>AI is the consensus priority</span></h2>

<p>Ninety-three percent of survey participants named artificial intelligence and machine learning as the most significant forces expected to reshape UK financial services over the next five years. That near-unanimous view is being backed by capital: 91% of leaders say they plan to increase their organisation's investment in AI within the next twelve months.</p>

<p>The framing from Lloyds is that institutions are no longer asking whether AI matters — they are working out how quickly they can move from ambition to adoption. According to Francis, advanced AI and data solutions are being assessed for their ability to improve productivity, deepen client relationships and open new market opportunities, rather than treated as experimental initiatives sitting apart from the core business. The focus has shifted to how these technologies integrate with operational reality.</p>

<p>The survey also finds that 64% of respondents plan to increase capital expenditure year-on-year, reflecting a parallel commitment to the underlying infrastructure — operational resilience, data systems, people — that makes technology investment pay off over time.</p>

<h2><span>The UK retains its position as a global financial anchor</span></h2>

<p>Alongside the technology story, the survey reinforces persistent confidence in the UK as a financial hub. Seven in ten respondents expect the country to maintain its standing as a leading global centre for financial services, up from 60% in 2024. Executives point to the UK's strengths in capital markets, its regulatory environment and its international connectivity as factors that continue to draw both domestic activity and inbound financial flows.</p>

<p>That confidence matters in context: the survey was conducted against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty, and the fact that confidence in the UK's structural role has risen rather than fallen speaks to the depth of the foundations institutions believe are in place. The combination of established infrastructure, specialist professional services and an openness to international business continues to make the UK a preferred base for firms looking to scale.</p>

<h2><span>Key takeaways</span></h2>

<ol>

<li><b>Confidence has reached a decade high.</b> Ninety-four percent of senior UK financial services leaders anticipate growth over the next ten years — a substantial jump from 81% the previous year.</li>

<li><b>Technology is now the primary growth driver.</b> The share of executives citing technology investment as a key growth lever has surged from 25% in 2024 to 77% in 2026, a shift that reflects genuine strategic reprioritisation.</li>

<li><b>AI commands near-consensus attention.</b> Ninety-three percent of respondents identify artificial intelligence and machine learning as the forces most likely to reshape UK financial services over the next five years.</li>

<li><b>Investment plans are following conviction.</b> With 91% expecting to increase AI spend and 64% planning higher capital expenditure overall, ambition is translating into committed resource allocation.</li>

<li><b>The UK's hub status is strengthening, not softening.</b> Despite global uncertainty, belief in the UK as a leading global financial centre has grown, underpinned by its capital markets depth, regulatory framework and international connectivity.</li>

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