CLOUDERA REPORT FINDS HYBRID AI CORE STRATEGY FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 (Bernama) -- Cloudera, the company bringing artificial intelligence (AI) to data anywhere, has released a new global report in collaboration with Finextra Research revealing that hybrid AI deployment has become the dominant strategy in financial services.

Based on a survey of 155 senior executives worldwide, the report shows 91 per cent of organisations view a hybrid AI approach as highly valuable, and 62 per cent are already deploying AI across public clouds, data centres, and edge environments.

In a statement, Cloudera said the hybrid model is now considered critical for managing legacy systems, scaling efficiently, and meeting the demands of AI-driven operations.

However, the study warns that data silos and security challenges remain major barriers to full enterprise-wide AI adoption. Nearly all respondents (97 per cent) said fragmented data hinders effective AI deployment, while 84 per cent rated unified data governance and security as “critical” or “very important”.

Cloudera Global Director of AI Solutions for Financial Services, Adrien Chenailler said the report confirms that a data-anywhere, hybrid strategy is non-negotiable.

“To truly bridge the implementation gap, financial institutions need a unified data and AI platform that ensures consistent governance and security across all environments,” he said.

Meanwhile, Finextra Research Managing Director, Gary Wright noted that the findings reflect a clear reality: “AI can only deliver its full potential when data sovereignty, privacy, and trust are guaranteed.”

While 97 per cent of firms have implemented at least one AI or machine learning use case, only 26 per cent have fully integrated AI into core operations, leaving many still at the experimentation stage. Security, meanwhile, continues to drive investment decisions — with one in four firms ranking it as their top priority when choosing AI vendors.

Conducted in August 2025, the Finextra survey polled financial and technology leaders across five global regions, highlighting the industry’s accelerating pivot toward trusted, hybrid AI ecosystems as the foundation for future competitiveness.

-- BERNAMA