Financial institutions are increasing their investment in artificial intelligence, but the scale of spending varies considerably by organisation size, raising questions about how effectively firms are translating investment into measurable value, according to new research from RegTech Analyst.
The AI in Risk and Compliance 2026 report, which was co-authored by RegTech Analyst and Parker & Lawrence Research, jumped into the topic of AI deployment and what the data is saying in regards to global deployment of the technology.
The AI in Risk and Compliance 2026 report found that 300 institutions forecast a combined $703.7m in AI spending across risk and compliance during 2026. By comparison, a similarly profiled sample of 300 institutions in the Global State of RegTech 2026 reported $2.37bn in total RegTech expenditure.
This suggests that approximately 30% of reported risk and compliance technology spending is being allocated to AI, highlighting the growing financial commitment institutions are making to the technology.
However, the research shows that investment levels differ significantly according to organisational scale.
Institutions with between 50 and 249 employees forecast average AI spending of just $80,000, compared with $11m among organisations employing 20,000 or more people. Spending increases particularly sharply once firms exceed 1,000 employees, suggesting that larger institutions are committing substantially more resources to AI programmes.
The proportion of RegTech budgets allocated to AI also rises with firm size, reaching its highest point among institutions with between 10,000 and 19,999 employees. These organisations allocate an average of 43.89% of their RegTech spending to AI.
Interestingly, that proportion falls to 25.89% among the largest institutions, despite their considerably higher average AI expenditure.
This suggests that the biggest organisations are not necessarily allocating the largest proportion of their technology budgets to AI. Their broader technology requirements, including legacy infrastructure, cybersecurity, operational resilience and financial crime systems, may also influence how investment is distributed.
What this means
The findings highlight an important distinction between the amount institutions spend on AI and the value they ultimately generate from it.
Larger budgets can provide organisations with greater resources to develop, integrate and scale AI applications. However, investment alone does not demonstrate that these programmes are delivering better operational outcomes, stronger risk management or meaningful cost efficiencies.
The report also highlights that successful AI implementation requires considerably more than access to the technology. Data preparation, systems integration, assurance, specialist expertise, security, procurement and continuous monitoring all contribute to the overall cost of deployment.
For financial institutions, this creates a challenge around demonstrating that AI investment is translating into tangible improvements across risk and compliance operations.
As spending continues to grow, the focus will increasingly need to shift towards measuring what these investments actually deliver. Reductions in manual workloads, improved detection capabilities, faster investigations and more effective compliance processes could all provide evidence of value.
The scale of AI investment may demonstrate how seriously financial institutions are taking the technology, but it does not necessarily reveal how successfully they are using it. The more important measure will be whether organisations can turn growing expenditure into sustainable, measurable business outcomes.
You can download the full AI in Risk and Compliance 2026 report here.
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
