Microsoft outlines five AI success predictors for 2026
The tech giant has identified practices it says will determine financial services AI success
Microsoft outlined five predictors for how financial services firms should organise for AI at scale in 2026.
In a blog post, Microsoft cited a November 2025 IDC study it commissioned showing Frontier Firms—companies embedding AI agents across workflows—report returns on AI investments roughly three times higher than slow adopters. The post said 70% of organisations across industries plan to increase budgets for generative and agentic AI in the next 24 months.
The company set out the five predictors: prioritise measurable value creation through agentic AI, build workforce AI fluency, expand innovation across business functions, embed responsible AI and regulatory readiness, and modernise data strategy for interoperability and real-time intelligence. Microsoft gave customer examples: Investec used Copilot for Sales to save bankers up to 200 hours a year; Generali France’s voice assistant resolves nearly 1.3 million calls, about 30% of requests, without human intervention; and Lloyds Banking Group trained over 10,000 employees with 93% daily usage among 30,000 licensed users after a volunteer instructor programme.
On governance, Microsoft said firms must treat agents like employees with identities, permissions and auditability. It highlighted Bradesco’s Bridge, noting an 83% digital service resolution rate and a 30% reduction in tech costs, and described Agent 365 as a unified control plane integrated with Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel and Purview audit logs to extend identity, security and telemetry across agents. The blog also cited IDC projections that agentic AI adoption will triple in the next two years and that 1.3 billion AI agents could be in business workflows by 2028.
For data readiness, Microsoft recommended unifying data with a platform approach rather than centralising everything, and referenced Microsoft Fabric and Fabric IQ, Foundry IQ, Azure and Agent 365 as components that connect data, provide semantics and enforce governance. The post urged organisations to modernise data foundations, embed identity-based access and audit trails, and prepare their workforce to unlock AI at scale.
The Recap
- Microsoft lists five predictors for financial AI success in 2026.
- Frontier Firms report roughly three times higher AI investment returns.
- Organizations should modernize data, governance and workforce readiness.
