Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Regional banks branch out with AI
Banking | Generative AI
September 16, 2025 – The banking sector has shown an uneven embrace of gen AI since its emergence in 2022. Core regional banks are ahead of other institutions in adopting gen AI, particularly in the ideation and planning stages, according to findings from a McKinsey survey. While megabanks also show significant activity in this initial phase, Senior Partner Kevin Buehler and coauthors find that fewer megabanks’ gen AI use cases reach full deployment compared with those of their peers.
To read the article, see “Banking on gen AI in the credit business: The route to value creation,” July 8, 2025.
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Visual form
Table (with Visual Encoding): sized-circle adoption-stage matrix for bank gen-AI use cases.
Layout / body structure
Rows separate megabanks, super-regionals, core regionals, and other institutions. Columns move across the adoption pipeline from ideation and planning through proof of concept, pilot, full deployment, and discontinued.
What is being compared
It compares how many institutions in each bank segment report gen-AI use cases at each development stage.
Measurement system
The measure is institution count. Each cell contains a labeled circle, and circle size reinforces the printed count.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Large circles cluster in the ideation and planning column, especially for core regionals and megabanks. Smaller circles appear in later columns, while super-regionals stand out in the full-deployment column.
Main takeaway from the visual
The matrix shows regional banks as active participants in gen-AI deployment, with core regionals especially concentrated in the early pipeline and super-regionals showing visible full-deployment activity.
Key standout values or extremes
Core regionals have the largest count, with 54 institutions in ideation and planning and 13 each in proof of concept and pilot. Megabanks show 30 in ideation and planning, while super-regionals show 6 in full deployment.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a fixed sized-circle matrix; there are no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the bank gen-AI adoption matrix is the visual on this page.