A study from AI vendor DeepL showed that 65% of the surveyed UK finance professionals admitted to using unsanctioned AI tools for customer interactions, creating potential cybersecurity and regulatory risks.

The study also found that  the vast majority (70%) of respondents believe that AI has improved the speed and availability of customer support and they expect the technolpogy to become essential to cross-border banking.

Already 37% banking interactions are powered by AI with multilingual communication being the most-used app, followed by chatbots and transaction monitoring for fraud.

However, the rise of shadow AI could hamper the development of the technology.

Another study published this week by Cybernews  reports that 59% of US workers use unapproved AI tools with execuitves and managers being the worst offenders.

“If employees use unapproved AI tools for work, there’s no way to know what kind of information is shared with them," said Mantas Sabeckis, security researcher at Cybernews. "Since tools like ChatGPT feel like you’re chatting with a friend, people forget that this data is actually shared with the company behind the chatbot,”

According to DeepL, shadow IT typically airses when teams don’t have access to the tools they need  — for example, using general-purpose AI tools when secure, purpose-built translation solutions are required.

Consequently, firms must ensure that customer-facing teams and IT departments must work closer together to select the right technology.

“In financial services, where every interaction is highly regulated and reputational risk is acute, staff will inevitably look for workarounds if the tools provided don’t meet their needs,” said David Parry-Jones, chief revenue officer at DeepL. “The real risk is not employees experimenting with AI, but companies failing to give them secure, fit-for-purpose solutions.

"By building a collaborative approach between IT and frontline teams, organisations can avoid shadow AI, protect against cybersecurity threats, and still realise the full benefits of trusted AI.”