Royal Bank of Canada ranked second behind JPMorgan Chase on a list compiled by Evident, a firm that has indexed the AI “maturity” of over 1,000 companies and ranked the 23 largest banks in North America and Europe. TD Bank came in sixth. (The Logic)

Talking point: Evident calls Canadian banks the “dark horses” of the AI race, praising their transparency around their use of AI and the extent to which their leadership discusses AI strategy. But former TD CEO and Vector Institute chairman Ed Clark told The Logic in an email that he did not find the ranking surprising, saying the country’s banking sector was an early adopter of AI and still plays a key role in Canada’s AI ecosystem. The two Canadian banks also scored highly on the number of employees who have published a recent AI paper. Evident’s report lauded the Canadian government’s broader efforts to deepen and scale the country’s industry, as well as the banks’ strong relationships with universities. Foteini Agrafioti, chief science officer at RBC and head of Borealis AI, told The Logic in an email that most of its tech is developed at Canadian universities and credited investments like the Aiden electronic trading platform and AI financial insight assistant NOMI for the bank’s success. Former TD chief AI officer and Vector Institute co-founder Tomi Poutanen was among more than 50 AI and banking experts consulted for the report.