The news: More than 20% of US consumers now use AI tools to research banking products, according to EMARKETER’s “US Banking Consumer Habits” survey. 

Speaking at FinvateFall 2026, Principal Analyst Tiffani Montez argued AI has become an intermediary deciding which banks, card issuers, and fintechs get recommended.

How we got here: Search once gave consumers a list of options and let them choose. AI gives a recommendation, shaped by authority, reviews, citations, and digital reputation that most institutions can't directly monitor. 

And the technology’s prominence in banking consumers’ lives will grow over the next few years: More than half of the US population will be a generative AI user by 2027, Montez said, citing EMARKETER's forecast.

US financial services firms will spend nearly $21.88 billion on search ads in 2027, yet that spending doesn't guarantee an AI mention.

Zooming out: EMARKETER’s AI Visibility Index shows that AI visibility isn’t simply a reflection of brand size. Capital One led the overall leaderboard in Q2 2026 with a 19% mention rate, while brands closely associated with specific financial needs can dominate recommendations within their categories.

For example, Klarna appeared in 91% of buy now, pay later queries, Coinbase led crypto and stablecoins at 84%, and Square led payment processing at 83%. Montez said these brands have little ambiguity about the problem they solve, making it easier for AI to match them to a need.

Implications for banks: Institutions that don't appear in an AI answer may never enter a consumer's consideration set, making AI visibility an important customer acquisition focus.

That risk is compounded because banks describe themselves through products, like credit cards and loans, while consumers describe their situations through needs, like protecting a purchase or sending money to a friend. AI models match recommendations to those needs, so product-first content may lack the language AI needs to surface a brand. 

Banks should regularly test banking inquiries in popular LLMs to track their own visibility versus their competitors’, rather than assuming AI visibility mirrors paid search performance. They should also rewrite their owned content around customer needs instead of product names alone, since that framing is what AI uses to match a query to a brand. 

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