The data: Half (50.4%) of bank marketers reported using AI-powered marketing tools in 2026, up from just 16.9% in 2024, per a 2026 ABA survey of 116 bank marketers.

That growth builds on an established technology base: CRM and marketing automation have been bank marketers’ two most-used technology categories for three consecutive years. 

Vendors are now adding AI decisioning capabilities that automate more of the work involved in planning and executing campaigns.

Zooming in: Vendors are building AI decisioning layers targeting a different part of the workflow. 

• Vertice AI launched a module that lets a bank set a goal, such as lifting auto loan volume, then generates a campaign calendar, audience selection, and compliant content.
• DeepTarget's Campaign Recommendations engine scores customer segments with a "Success Probability" rating and converts a recommendation into a campaign.
• Alkami's Predictive AI flags account holders who are likely to churn or ripe for cross-sell, giving marketers a starting list instead of a raw data export.

Community banks and credit unions are a particularly attractive market for these tools because they have the most immediate capacity constraints. Automation could give them capabilities they would otherwise lack the bandwidth to develop.

What this means: Financial institutions are also allocating slightly more of their marketing budgets to the broader technology and data foundation supporting their work. 

Marketing infrastructure—which includes CRM and campaign platforms, analytics and attribution tools, and the integrations connecting them—rose from 11% of total marketing budgets in 2025 to 12% in 2026per a Cornerstone Advisors study commissioned by Fintel Connect. Though this spending is not all for AI solutions, that broader infrastructure investment makes it easier for banks to adopt AI tools that depend on connected customer, campaign, and performance data.

But the technology doesn’t eliminate the need for marketing judgment; it moves that judgment upstream. 

Recommendations for bank marketers: As AI takes on audience selection, timing, and content creation, marketers will need to spend more time defining the right objectives, deciding which products and messages are appropriate for different customers, and establishing the rules within which the system operates.

Banks should evaluate automated campaigns against longer-term measures such as relationship growth, attrition, customer complaints, and the distribution of offers across customer groups.

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