The financial services industry has crossed a threshold that few anticipated a decade ago: artificial intelligence is no longer a competitive differentiator or experimental frontier. It is now the operating system itself. According to research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, over 81 percent of financial institutions have embedded some form of AI into their operations. Machine learning and generative AI have emerged as the dominant deployment vectors, adopted across client-facing and back-office functions with remarkable velocity. This statistical milestone signals a profound shift in how capital markets, lending platforms, and payment systems function at their core.…