Canada’s five biggest banks have widened their lead in artificial intelligence against their international counterparts, according to an annual global ranking.

The ranking: London-based Evident, an AI benchmarking and intelligence platform, measures the AI “maturity” of 50 international banks based on four criteria: innovation, talent, leadership and transparency. 

JPMorgan Chase retained its top position, but Canada maintained its lead as the highest-scoring region. Canada was the only country or region to have all its large banks score in the top 25, and Canada’s lead over the second-place U.S. actually increased slightly, according to Evident’s ranking.

Royal Bank of Canada leads: Evident named RBC the third most mature bank for AI in the world, the same rank as last year. RBC got deeply involved in AI research early, launching the Borealis Institute in 2016. That head start let the bank launch products such as Aiden, an AI-based electronic trading platform, and NOMI Forecast, which helps clients manage their cash flow by alerting them of things like upcoming bill payments, years before ChatGPT sparked an AI investment arms race. In an interview with The Logic, RBC chief science officer Foteini Agrafioti said the bank is experimenting with generative AI internally, but has concluded it isn’t ready for customer-facing uses: “We’re not there yet.”

The other four: TD Bank cracked the top 10, moving into ninth place from 11th last year. The bank’s previously announced AI initiatives include a chatbot that answers questions from customer service representatives about the bank’s policies and procedures and a deal to test possible applications of Toronto-based Cohere’s AI software. CIBC took the award for most improved, moving up to 22nd place from 41st the previous year, largely on the strength of an improved transparency score. BMO and Scotiabank both moved down in the rankings, with BMO slipping to 24th from 16th and Scotiabank dropping to 20th place from 18th.

The risks: Regulators around the world have urged caution as AI becomes increasingly integrated into the financial system. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada recently published a risk report on AI adoption at banks, noting that while they have been “enthusiastic adopters” they must be transparent and proactive about risk management. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler has warned against the possibility of “herding” as investors make similar decisions based on AI models trained on the same inputs.

In an interview with The Logic, Evident co-founder and co-CEO Alexandra Mousavizadeh said that while AI adoption by banks certainly poses risks, they’re outweighed by the benefits. “Banks are going to find themselves more productive with efficiency gains. You can use people better,” she said. “It’s a great thing.”