According to the latest Evident AI Index released on Thursday, JPMorgan (JPM.US) has the most AI talent, with a 16% growth in the past 12 months, exceeding the total of its seven major competitors.

Evident co-founder and co-CEO Annabel Ayles stated, "Undoubtedly, in terms of AI maturity, JPMorgan remains the most difficult bank to beat. The speed at which such a large organization adopts AI is remarkable."

Before the ChatGPT AI chat craze sparked by OpenAI in 2022, JPMorgan has been investing in artificial intelligence for many years. The financial institution hired AI research director Manuela Veloso in 2018, and since then its use cases have grown to over 400.

JPMorgan has already begun to see the dollar value of its commitment. The company's president Daniel Pinto stated last month that the bank expects to see nearly $2 billion in returns from its investment in the technology this year, especially in fraud prevention.

"Looking ahead, we believe that artificial intelligence and large language models will have a significant impact on improving our existing operational service processes and efficiency. We are doing a lot of work in the medium to long term for this," said Pinto.

Since Evident began its rankings in early 2023, the top four ranked banks have not only maintained their positions but also continued to move forward.

Evident co-founder and co-CEO Alexandra Mousavizadeh said, "Leaders are leading and playing a bigger leadership role."

Based on publicly available data related to AI adoption, Evident evaluated 50 major banks in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, and scored these institutions on talent, innovation, transparency, and leadership.

While all 50 banks in the index have increased adoption measures since last year, the data found that the adoption speed of the top 10 banks is twice that of other banks in the field.

Mousavizadeh said that banks dedicated to AI are going all out: recruiting, poaching talent, designing internal systems, conducting tests, and collaborating with major players like Nvidia and Microsoft.

Mousavizadeh said, "We can see that these dynamics are creating divisions in the banking system." "If you stand still for a moment, when will you almost certainly fall behind? I'd say, we need another 18 months."

Many banks are not standing still.

The biggest gainer in this year's index is Morgan Stanley, rising 7 spots to enter the top 10. The investment bank partnered with OpenAI for the first time in March 2023, becoming the only wealth management partner for this AI startup at that time.

The company launched the AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant in September 2023, which is a generative AI chatbot that can help financial advisors access a wealth of technical knowledge from the bank. In June of this year, the bank introduced the generative AI assistant Debrief built on OpenAI's GPT-4 to support its financial advisors.

"The performance of HSBC and Morgan Stanley shows that banks that are slow to start in the field of artificial intelligence still have the potential to catch up and even surpass in this field," Ayles said. "The competition in AI applications is far from over, but the gap between the leaders and other banks is widening. Lower-ranked institutions will need to accelerate their pace if they want to go further."