Banks want fluent AI users, not more coders

Banking professionals recently named AI fluency the top skill their organizations need as AI takes hold and ranked pure software-development skill last.

In American Banker's AI Talent Shift survey of 206 banking professionals, conducted in March, 73% selected AI fluency (understanding how AI tools work and how to use them) as a most necessary skill.

Critical thinking and judgment ranked second at 64% and data literacy third at 58%. Pure software-development skill drew 24%.

AI fluency tops the chart at the same time most respondents say their organizations don't have much of it; 48% rated their organization's current AI fluency as moderate, 33% rated it low or very low, and only 16% rated it high or very high.

About 39% named prompt engineering and AI tool proficiency as a most necessary skill. Another 38% named the ability to create and supervise models, bots or virtual agents.

Asked separately what roles their organization is adding, a senior executive in risk management at a bank with $100 billion to $150 billion in assets wrote: "Experts in prompting, agentic work flows."

Retail and small-business bankers endorsed AI fluency most strongly: 82% named it a top skill, compared with 68% in wealth management and investment banking, and 69% in risk, legal, or compliance.

In wealth management and investment banking, critical thinking is considered more important than AI fluency, 74% to 68%. These were the only departments where AI fluency did not finish first, and they cared more about critical thinking than any other division.

Community banks under $10 billion in assets named change management and adaptability as a top skill 41% of the time. Credit unions selected it 43% of the time.

National banks with more than $100 billion in assets selected it 23% of the time.

In other words, community bank and credit union professionals were roughly twice as likely as national bank professionals to call change management a most-needed skill.

At institutions where AI spending grew 25% or more in the past year, 93% of respondents named AI fluency a top skill. At all other institutions, the share was 75% or lower.

AI fluency placed first in every cut of the survey but one. Software-development skills placed last in every cut.