City week 2026: The AI in Financial Services Summit

Since ChatGPT arrived on the scene a few years ago, there has been a lot of hype about the potential of AI to transform financial services. However, financial institutions are now implementing numerous real-world applications of Gen AI and are tentatively exploring the next phase of AI, Agentic AI. What are the current and future use cases of AI in the financial sector? Which global problems might AI solve and in what timeframe? What progress has been made in developing International governance, regulation and standards for AI? Turning to the experts, where do AI leaders think we will be in 5- and 10-years’ time? And finally, the arrival of AI has increased the focus on cybersecurity, as AI has increased cyber threats – are boards sufficiently focused on cybersecurity and operational resilience?

2026 will be a pivotal year for the financial sector. The convergence of advanced data strategies and transformative artificial intelligence is fundamentally rewriting the rules of banking, asset management, insurance, and FinTech. AI is set to automate over a third of manual processes, from data processing to reconciliation, driving exceptional efficiency gains. The next frontier is the deployment of AI agents - autonomous systems - that will revolutionize back-office operations and redefine the customer experience through human-centric, empathetic automation.

Building on a great success of our Data & AI events portfolio, City and Financial Global was pleased to give you advanced notice of the UK National AI Policy, Infrastructure and Skills Summit, which took place in Central London on 12 November this year. Supported by techUK and put together with kind assistance of the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, this timely and "one of a kind" event brought together top experts from the field to analyse the progress made so far in implementing the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, the next phases in its implementation and the implications for both AI providers and users.  Is the UK on course to deliver its promise to make the UK an “AI superpower”? What more needs to be done?

The AI Regulation Summit offers a unique platform for in-depth discussion on the evolving landscape of AI governance, compliance, and best practice — tailored specifically to the needs and opportunities of the UK.

This summit explored the real-world applications of Gen AI for financial institutions and the huge potential for the industry of the next phase of AI, Agentic AI. It also provided a detailed analysis of all the related issues, including regulation, data governance, AI infrastructure, the impact on financial markets and specific financial products, international developments and risk management. Top AI experts shared their insights, global regulators discussed emerging AI regulation and financial services leaders discussed current and future AI applications.

This global summit brought together some of the top experts to consider the various regulatory approaches that were being adopted internationally, the key legal issues involved in AI and how regulation is being coordinated at a supranational level to avoid regulatory arbitrage.

Building on the current work and the latest priorities of the DRCF, Bank of England, the FCA, ICO, CIPL, CDEI and leading financial institutions in the UK, Europe and US, the Data, AI and the Future of Financial Services Summit provided you with best practice for achieving optimal business outcomes with data + AI in respect of people, process, and technology, and enabled you to learn how to deliver digital transformation in a data driven industry.

Generative AI has already led to many use cases in financial services. However, the real potential may lie in next generation AI. At this summit, top AI experts shared their insights on this, global regulators discussed emerging AI regulation and financial services leaders discussed current and future AI applications, model risk management, and governance and ethical issues.

The EU AI Act was the first comprehensive model for the regulation of AI to be introduced internationally (other than China’s AI regulation, which has a different objective). It took a prescriptive, rules-based approach and covered both the providers and users of AI technologies. It was extra-territorial in its reach, although how this might be enforced is not yet clear. In recognition of how quickly AI technology is developing, those drafting the legislation have tried to build in a degree of flexibility, but this is likely to be limited by the fact that it is rules-based.

While the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) to society, including the business community, are enormous, there has been a great deal of focus on how best AI models should be regulated to avoid any potential adverse consequences.

City & Financial Global’s timely global summit on this subject brought together some of the foremost experts to consider the various regulatory approaches that are being adopted internationally, the key legal issues involved in AI and how regulation can be coordinated at a supranational level to avoid regulatory arbitrage.