AI finance is here, but scaling hurdles abound: fintech execs

MONTREAL — Banks are looking to ramp up artificial intelligence use for millions of customers, but executives say hurdles abound and checks need to be built in.

At the Canada Fintech Forum on Tuesday, banking and tech leaders said financial institutions have yet to weave AI through a majority of their systems, such as apps and data storage, even as finance helps lead the way in machine learning adoption.

Michael Pelosi, the country manager for Canada at Toronto-based AI company Cohere, says just because an AI agent can offer financial advice on a small scale doesn’t mean it will be safe or cheap enough to roll out to millions of clients.

Stephanie Hazlewood, a senior director at RBC, says customer expectations are evolving quickly but that security concerns and the cost of deploying machine-learning models on a massive scale have deterred broader uptake.

Executives say corporate accountability for all financial choices made by an AI agent will be key, as will what experts called traceability — being able to pinpoint how a given decision came about.

Last year, a Statistics Canada analysis found that more than 30 per cent of banking and insurance firms were using AI in some fashion.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2026.