The data: Financial institutions (FIs) are embracing AI for marketing, but they’re focused on content creation rather than using AI to act on customer insights, according to a Cornerstone Advisors and Persado survey.

• 63% of bank and credit union marketing teams use generative AI for content creation.
• 32% use AI for analytics and decision support.
• And just 18% use AI to personalize or target their marketing.

Why it matters: FIs are leaving some of the most valuable applications of their customer data on the table. 

They have visibility into customers' changing financial needs—from growing balances and maturing CDs to new direct deposits and spending patterns. But those signals have limited value if banks can't translate them into timely, relevant outreach.

Failing to do so risks making bank marketing more product-driven than customer-driven. A bank might know that a customer's financial circumstances are changing, for example, but still market according to its own campaign calendar rather than responding to what that individual customer needs.

But customers want FIs to understand where they are in their financial lives and to anticipate their needs with personalized recommendations.

Implications for banks: Bank marketing could become much more personalized as institutions get better at connecting customer data to action. That would change the question marketers ask from, “Which customers should receive this campaign?” to, “What does this customer need from us right now?”

The payoff goes beyond campaign performance. Banks that consistently recognize and respond to customers' evolving needs can deepen relationships by introducing the right product, guidance, or service when it is actually relevant.

Using AI to analyze such massive troves of data will be key to implementing this strategy. Banks will need to connect customer data, decisioning, compliance, and execution before they can turn what they know about customers into timely action at scale.

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