UBS is sole European bank in top 10 of AI adoption ranking
The Swiss lender moved up to sixth in Evident’s annual index, while HSBC fell to 11th. JPMorgan Chase extended its lead.
UBS advanced one position to sixth in Evident’s annual ranking of banks’ adoption of artificial intelligence, leaving it as Europe’s only representative among the top 10. HSBC, headquartered in London, dropped from eighth in 2025 to 11th.
Evident assesses 50 major banks across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific through publicly available information. Its scoring gives the greatest weight to AI talent, alongside innovation, leadership attention and openness about responsible use. The lenders have disclosed more than 1,100 separate AI applications since 2021, covering activities including fraud detection, software development and loan assessment.
JPMorgan Chase increased its advantage over Capital One in second place. Royal Bank of Canada took third and Australia’s CommBank fourth. Six US lenders and two Canadian banks made the top 10. European lenders were more prominent in the following 10 positions: Lloyds Banking Group held 15th, NatWest ranked 17th and Barclays gained four places to reach 19th.
The pace of improvement in banks’ AI capabilities over the past year was almost three times the average for the preceding three years, Evident found. It also said leading adopters continued to hire AI specialists and favoured expansion over workforce reductions. Across all 50 lenders, software implementation roles increased by 4.3 per cent.
Twelve banks disclosed achieved or expected returns from AI, compared with eight previously. Evident also found advanced safeguards at 80 per cent of leading banks, versus 40 per cent of the other institutions assessed. It plans to introduce an additional scoring pillar in 2027 focused on the outcomes banks achieve with AI.
