Financial Services organisations are responsible for some of the biggest growth in the global economy. Equally, they’re some of the most vulnerable. Like many other sectors, they’re racing to embrace AI, but with adoption comes new security risks.

According to Thales’ Data Threat Report: Financial Services Edition 81% of FinServ organisations are now investing in GenAI-specific security tools, with nearly a quarter using newly allocated budget. This surge in funding marks a turning point: AI security has moved from being an IT concern to a boardroom priority.

The fact that new budget lines are being carved out specifically for AI security signals a fundamental shift in corporate strategy. Boards increasingly recognise that protecting AI systems is as critical as safeguarding payment rails or core banking infrastructure. For an industry built on trust, resilience, and regulatory compliance, this investment wave shows how central AI has become to both risk management and competitive growth.

Balancing AI Innovation and Security

While FinServ organisations are aware of the security risks AI poses, they’re also seizing upon the opportunities it presents. The report has found that in 2024, FinServ businesses outpaced the broader market in AI deployment, leading in enabling employees to use AI and ahead in AI integration, which has continued into 2025. Additionally, 45% say they’re in the ‘integration’ or ‘transformation’ phases of their GenAI journey, compared to just 33% across wider industries.

AI’s ability to accelerate services, automate processes, and analyse data at scale makes it an exciting prospect, especially in the financial sector. This makes securing AI systems a priority for FinServ organisations, with increased GenAI integration reflecting developing organisational maturity and progress beyond experimentation.

The Risk

Yet the scale of opportunity is matched by the scale of challenge. AI systems require vast amounts of structured and unstructured data to conduct analysis and make recommendations.

For FinServ organisations, this often includes highly sensitive customer and transactional information, proprietary algorithms, and records bound by strict regulatory oversight. The risk is not only about whether AI systems themselves are secure, but whether the data they’re working from is accurate, as well as whether their adoption inadvertently creates new routes to data exposure and exfiltration.

Businesses need a clear strategy to fully understand how AI models are operating within their IT infrastructure, the applications they’re interacting with, and the data they’re accessing and pulling from.

The Response

Balancing AI’s opportunity and risk means embedding security at every stage, from design to deployment and ongoing monitoring. Newly allocated budgets for AI security, with nearly a quarter of FinServ firms making such investments, show how central AI has become to board-level strategy. These investments move firms beyond reactive fixes to proactive frameworks that evolve with the technology. AI security is no longer just an IT concern, it’s a strategic priority requiring collaboration between security, compliance, and business leaders. By factoring risk into early planning, organisations can align innovation with responsibility and build resilience for the long term.

Pioneering AI Security

Building on investment in AI-specific security is only the beginning. As scrutiny intensifies, the firms that will lead are those that treat AI security as integral to business strategy, not a bolt-on layer. Success will require visibility into how models behave, continuous validation against emerging risks, and adaptive controls that evolve with the threat landscape.

The financial services organisations that embed these safeguards into their core infrastructure will protect sensitive data as well as setting a benchmark for resilience and trust in an AI-driven economy. By making AI security a boardroom priority today, these firms position themselves to capture competitive advantage, safeguard customer confidence, and define the future of secure innovation.

Thales: AI is the New Insider Threat 

Thales 2026 Data Threat Report Finds 70% of Organisations Rank AI as Top Data Security Risk

Data security has taken centre stage as the success of enterprise AI initiatives increasingly hinges on consistent, controlled access to proprietary organisational data sources. The 2026 Thales Data Threat Report examines the complex calculus that organizations must undertake to enable innovation while securing their most valuable asset – their data.

This research was based on a global survey of 3,120 respondents fielded via web survey with targeted populations for each country, aimed at professionals in security and IT management. 

Read the Report