GICP Study Finds Credit Organisations with Strongest AI Impact Make Twice as Many Workforce and Workflow Changes

New research from the Global Institute of Credit Professionals (GICP) has found that organisations achieving the greatest impact from artificial intelligence are making significantly more changes to their workforce and workflows than those reporting lower levels of AI impact.

The findings, published in GICP’s Credit in the Age of AI report, suggest that AI adoption alone is not enough to deliver better business outcomes in the credit industry.

Instead, the research indicates that organisations achieving the strongest results are combining AI adoption with governance, workforce capability and changes to their operating models.

AI adoption remains relatively shallow

According to the research, 56% of organisations currently use AI in less than 25% of their credit processes, including 14% that are not using AI at all.

Current adoption is concentrated in lower-risk activities such as document drafting, financial analysis and market research. However, AI is delivering its greatest reported impact in areas closest to credit decision-making, including risk assessment and credit scoring.

Despite relatively modest adoption levels, organisations are already reporting measurable benefits.

Nearly half (47%) of organisations using AI across 25–49% of their workflows report high organisational impact. This increases to 66% among organisations using AI across 50–75% of workflows.

Governance emerges as a key differentiator

GICP’s findings suggest that how organisations implement AI is as important as the amount of AI they use.

Governance was identified as one of the clearest differences between organisations achieving high AI-enabled impact and those struggling to realise value.

Among organisations with eight or nine AI governance measures in place, 67% reported high AI-enabled impact. This compares with 23% of organisations with zero or only one governance measure.

Half of organisations reporting high AI-enabled impact also have formal governance frameworks in place, compared with 18% of those where AI-enabled impact remains minimal or mixed.

Organisations reporting high AI-enabled impact introduced an average of 2.58 workforce and workflow changes – more than twice the 1.22 changes recorded among organisations reporting lower AI impact.

The research also identified a disconnect between the challenges organisations recognise and where they intend to invest.

While 65% of respondents identified leadership and governance factors as the biggest barrier to successful AI adoption, only 38% plan to prioritise investment in this area.

The ‘Two Waves of AI Value’

The report describes the development of AI within credit as the “Two Waves of AI Value”.

The first wave has focused on productivity improvements through lower-risk applications including drafting, summarisation and research.

A second wave is now emerging as organisations begin applying AI to underwriting, credit assessment and risk scoring.

However, the research suggests that organisational readiness has yet to catch up with these ambitions. Across organisations expecting disruption from generative AI, autonomous decision-making or real-time monitoring, 79% are not yet deploying AI in the corresponding functions.

Andreas Karaiskos, Executive Director of the Global Institute of Credit Professionals, said:

“The conversation around AI has largely focused on adoption, but our research shows that adoption alone is not creating competitive advantage. Organizations with similar levels of AI activity are achieving very different outcomes because success depends on much more than technology. The organizations seeing the greatest impact are investing in governance, workforce capability and operating models that enable AI to be embedded effectively into day-to-day credit decision-making. As AI becomes an established part of the credit lifecycle, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on how well organizations combine technology with skilled professionals, sound judgement and effective execution.”

The report concludes that as AI becomes embedded throughout the credit lifecycle, organisations that invest in governance, leadership, workforce capability and operational change alongside technology will be best placed to translate adoption into meaningful long-term business value.

The full findings and information on downloading the report are available via the Global Institute of Credit Professionals.