Experts at the consulting firm Yakov & Partners examined the current state and development prospects of AI in Russia's banking sector. The study, "AI Goes All-In: The Penetration of Artificial Intelligence in the Financial Sector," analyzes 11 Russian banks fr om the top 20 by assets, as well as five international financial institutions drawn fr om the 15 leaders of the Evident AI ranking of artificial intelligence maturity.
The analysis set out to assess the maturity of AI implementation across products and customer channels in three business segments: retail banking (RB), small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), and corporate & investment banking (CIB).
Based on the findings, the experts assigned each participant one of three maturity levels—"Follower," "Pragmatist," or "Pioneer." Each bank was categorized according to the following key characteristics: coverage of product use cases by models, coverage by advanced model types (neural and generative), and the use of advanced modalities (natural-language text and audio).
According to the experts, just over half of the banks (6 out of 11 in the sample) fall into the "Follower" category, four banks are "Pragmatists," and only one bank has reached the "Pioneer" level. The median maturity score across the market is 4 out of a possible 9, indicating that the industry, on average, sits at the boundary between "Followers" and "Pragmatists."
The experts also identified a pronounced gap among segments. Retail banking is the most mature in terms of AI penetration, with the median coverage of product use cases by models reaching 69%, significantly higher than SMB (38%) and CIB (31%).
AI penetration is highest in credit products, with rates of 78% in retail, 44% in SMB, and 43% in CIB. By contrast, in deposit and transactional products, the figure does not exceed 52% (in retail).
"The mass rollout of AI in credit products has shown that the industry can quickly extract value from technology. The next step is to transfer this maturity to transactional and deposit products, wh ere competition for the customer is intensifying against the backdrop of still-high rates. That is wh ere new leaders will emerge—those ready to invest in long-term value"
Maksim Bolotskikh, Partner in the Artificial Intelligence & High Tech practice at Yakov and Partners
A similar hierarchy of maturity persists across channels: retail leads (59% of channel use cases covered by models), followed by SMB (50%), while CIB shows minimal values (6%).
In addition, the experts recorded active development of generative AI at the banks studied. At least six banks have implemented solutions based on it (for example, chatbots and employee assistants). That said, the use of generative AI remains limited: even in channel use cases, the average penetration of such models does not exceed 20% across all business segments.
The key barrier to broader adoption of AI and generative AI remains the talent shortage: 91% of banks reported a lack of qualified specialists at the senior level and above. Other significant obstacles include restrictions on the use of public cloud services (82%) due to regulatory requirements, as well as the shortage and high cost of GPUs (73%)—such as Nvidia A100 and H100—for training generative neural networks. Meanwhile, 64% of banks note difficulties both with integrating AI into existing processes and with measuring its financial impact.
"It is worth noting that the top five Russian banks in terms of AI adoption slightly outperform the international banks examined (6 points vs. 5), which once again underscores their strong digital capabilities and ambitions despite all barriers and constraints. We hope the detailed version of the study, provided individually to each bank, will serve as a valuable aid and guide for further development and the strengthening of Russian banks' positions, including relative to international leaders"
Maksim Bolotskikh, Partner in the Artificial Intelligence & High Tech practice at Yakov and Partners
Looking at differences across business verticals at Russian banks, there is a 1–3-point maturity gap in AI implementation in the SMB and CIB segments compared with retail. Compared with international players, the lag in SMB and CIB is particularly evident in products. According to Ilya Golod, Engagement Manager in the Artificial Intelligence & High Tech practice at Yakov and Partners, the top five Russian banks by AI maturity trail international leaders in product coverage by models by 1.5× (26 p.p.) and 1.8× (36 p.p.) in SMB and CIB, respectively.
"The gap between Russian and leading foreign banks in SMB and CIB products may indicate a systemic underestimation of AI's potential in serving legal entities in Russia. Banks that start systematically developing AI in products for SMB and CIB ahead of others will be able to gain a sustainable competitive advantage through better service and personalization"
Ilya Golod, Engagement Manager in the Artificial Intelligence & High Tech practice at Yakov and Partners
