RBC maintains top three leadership position globally for AI maturity in financial services

RBC ranked #1 in Canada and #3 globally in the 2026 Evident AI Index for fifth straight year

TORONTO, Oct. 6, 2026 /CNW/ -- Once again this year, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) was ranked #1 in Canada and #3 among 50 global financial institutions on the 2026 Evident AI Index. First issued by AI benchmarking and intelligence platform Evident in January 2023, the annual Index scores banks across four key pillars: Talent, Innovation, Leadership and Transparency. RBC achieved scores in the top 10 across all four pillars, with notable gains in Talent, up four positions to #8, and Leadership, where the bank moved into second place.

"Our sustained leadership in the Evident AI Index is proof that consistent, deliberate investment in a trusted data set, cutting-edge research, top talent and responsible AI creates real competitive advantage," said Dave McKay, President and CEO, RBC. "Across RBC, we're tapping into this generational technology to redefine the next era of banking and keep raising the bar on what clients can expect from us."

In 2025, RBC announced a goal to achieve $700 million to $1 billion in value derived from AI by 2027 and earlier this year, the bank announced the AI Group to help advance research into emerging use cases for generative and agentic AI, maintain expertise in security, responsible AI, and regulatory expectations, and help equip employees with the training, tools, and support to leverage the full power of AI in their roles.

"Our continued success in the Evident AI Index reflects the strength of our teams, our engineering culture and relentless focus on execution," said Bruce Ross, Group Head, AI, RBC. "Building on our decade-long AI investment, we are scaling the bank's most promising AI opportunities into solutions that deliver real results for clients and vaue for our people."

Naim Kazmi, RBC's Group Head of Technology & Operations believes AI has the potential to greatly transform how the bank approaches technology: "AI advancements provide speed of outcomes that enable us to approach business challenges in new ways and reinvent how we create value for our millions of clients around the world," said Kazmi. "Embedding AI into more aspects of our business is a critical step towards our Investor Day goal." 

RBC's 2026 ranking builds on a series of AI milestones achieved over the past year, including:

• Newcomer credit: Using machine learning, RBC has been able to offer roughly 40 per cent more credit limit increases to Canadians with under two years of credit history than conventional methods would allow, translating into close to $300 million in extra credit extended to clients who are working to establish themselves financially in Canada.
  
  
• Aiden: The AI platform built by RBC Capital Markets is now in the hands of all 8,000 Capital Markets employees. Purpose-built tools on the platform are already driving results:
  • Aiden QuickTakes helps generate draft research reports up to 95 per cent faster, expanding the number of companies covered by analysts. In 2024, RBC covered 14.5 names, on average, per analyst. That figure has grown to over 17.5 today and is on track to scale to 22 names per analyst with AidenResearch's AI-forward approach.
  • AidenBanker streamlines pitchbook assembly, meeting prep, and note-taking for investment bankers, facilitating production of client materials that are both faster and richer in insight while freeing the banker to focus on strategic client advice. What began as a research tool has grown into a platform that now underpins day-to-day work across the firm.
    
    
• Internal AI adoption: More than 72,000 RBC employees are using RBC Assist or Aiden, our proprietary AI tools and 10,000 technologists are using other AI tools to support work like software development.
  
  
• Strengthening financial sector governance: Actively involved in the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), RBC is part of the FINOS AI Fund designed to help the industry collectively shape the governance, standards, and implementation foundations needed for responsible agentic AI adoption in regulated financial services.

"RBC maintained its position among the world's leading banks for AI in an increasingly competitive environment, thanks to its strengths in innovation," said Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Evident. "Boasting one of banking's most established research capabilities, RBC is spreading its increasingly sophisticated AI capabilities across the bank."

About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 105,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our more than 19 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.?

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/peopleandplanet.

Media contact:
Briana D'Archi, RBC Corporate Communications, [email protected]

SOURCE RBC

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