At the end of 2025, the Estonian financial sector supervisor Finantsinspektsioon (FI) released the results of a survey assessing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Estonia’s financial sector. The survey, carried out in March 2025, was the consequence of the rapid spread of AI technologies as well as their effect on financial services operations and business activities.
The survey analyzed five interconnected areas: general use and awareness of AI, AI usage areas, impact of AI usage, AI risks, and future perspectives. Sixty-five supervised companies, including banks, insurers, investment firms, and fund managers, representing over half of the total number of companies under supervision, responded.
AI solutions uptake
Based on the summary of findings, most of the respondents have already encountered AI and are at least testing AI solutions (44%), while over one-third are using AI in their daily activities (36%). Under one-fifth of the respondents (20%) stated that they do not use or plan to use AI. Those that completely avoid AI technologies remain the exception.
The findings also show that data analysis and customer service are both areas in which AI deployment and use is most common. The most popular use cases include language processing (40%), building machine learning models (30%), and automation of processes (30%), including for KYC (know your customer). None of these use cases is surprising, given the specific and highly regulated nature of the financial sector.
The respondents identified improved efficiency, reduced costs, and better decision-making as some of the key advantages resulting from AI adoption, although this should be interpreted in the context of many of the AI projects being in the early stages of deployment and usability.
The majority of respondents found compliance with data protection and privacy requirements to be the main barriers to AI uptake. Firms also identified risks in the areas of data protection, model reliability, and cybersecurity, with respondents suggesting that risk mitigation measures should include stronger internal controls, human supervision, and data protection.
“The widespread use of AI shows that the Estonian financial sector is ready to take innovation on board. Artificial intelligence will probably become one of the key factors in the coming years for competitiveness in the sector and for the quality of services,” said Siim Tammer, member of the Finantsinspektsioon Management Board.
He went on to say: “Artificial intelligence will create lots of new opportunities in the financial sector, but those opportunities will bring great responsibility with them. Companies will have to pay careful attention to the quality of their models and their risk management and make sure that it is not possible for technological error or lack of transparency to impact clients or the credibility of the market.”
A peek at the future?
The survey results suggest that although AI adoption is widespread, there is still a lack of a systemic approach or dedicated industrywide strategies in this area in the country’s financial sector.
An influencing factor is the fact that many organizations are in the pilot phases of AI adoption. Early-stage uptake of AI solutions also makes it difficult to assess the return on AI investment, with 40% of respondents not yet assessing the cost-benefit ratio at all.
However, based on the survey results, almost one-quarter of firms plan to continue their AI journeys in the coming years. Forty-one percent confirm their plans to invest in language processing solutions (NLP), 32% will continue to invest in generative AI, while others signal continuing spending on process automation and the development of machine learning models supporting various functions.
Continued investment
Advantages in efficiency, risk mitigation, and customer experience take time to manifest themselves in an organization’s bottom line. So the continued investment demonstrated by these survey results appears to suggest that firms believe AI implementation will pay for itself in the long run.
Looking at the wider picture, with similar studies having been conducted in other European countries such as Luxembourg, we can expect to see more targeted and detailed surveys and studies from the regulator that might, for example, explore the impact of AI technologies on competitiveness, profitability, and innovation.
In the case of Estonia, the focus on innovation is also closely aligned with the views shared by Kilvar Kessler, Chair of Finantsinspektsioon, in his ECB interview in May 2025 about supporting Estonia’s leadership and expertise in digital banking through the adoption and enabling of digital solutions.
According to Kessler, ensuring that regulators remain curious is a key element in addressing the risks present when innovation is taking place at pace. Presumably the publication of the survey is evidence that the regulator is watching AI adoption by firms very closely.