RBC ranks #1 in Canada and #3 globally for AI maturity in financial services for fourth straight year

RBC only Canadian bank in the top ten of 50 global banks

TORONTO, Oct. 8, 2025 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (TSX: RY) (NYSE: RY) continues to demonstrate global leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), ranking #1 in Canada and third out of 50 global financial institutions for AI maturity in the 2025 Evident AI Index for the fourth consecutive year. The Index scores financial institutions across four key pillars: Talent, Innovation, Leadership, and Transparency.

RBC is the only Canadian bank ranked in the top 10 globally, improving its overall year-over-year performance, with notable ranking increases in the Leadership and Transparency pillars and achieving the global #1 spot in AI talent development. RBC's leadership position was bolstered by its recently announced bold ambition to achieve $700 million to $1 billion in enterprise value generated from AI-driven benefits by 2027, while its ongoing commitment to upholding its responsible AI principles increased its Transparency pillar ranking.

"AI is a generational technology that has the power to reimagine what's possible for our business," said Dave McKay, President and CEO, RBC. "At RBC, AI is empowering our people, uncovering opportunities to better serve and understand our clients, and driving significant productivity gains. Our ranking in the Evident AI Index is proof of our decade-long investment in AI and unwavering commitment to innovation."

Since launching its Borealis Research Institute in 2016, RBC has spent almost a decade building an AI foundation underpinned by exceptional talent, commitment to responsible AI and world-class security. Enhancing the client experience, preparing RBC's workforce for the future, shaping the future of banking with unrivaled platforms, and doing so responsibly, are key priorities for the bank's AI future.

"RBC is creating the future of banking with secure, leading-edge AI platforms and tools that are poised to unlock faster service and smarter insights for employees and clients," said Dr. Foteini Agrafioti, SVP, Data and AI and Chief Science Officer, RBC. "Our year-after-year ranking in the Evident AI Index top three is validation of the strength of our teams, culture of curiosity, and passion for execution excellence."

RBC's AI capabilities are powered by its data scale: its Lumina platform collects and curates more than one billion business events, and has the computational capacity to analyze up to 10 billion transactions per minute. ATOM, RBC's proprietary foundation model was trained using large-scale financial datasets including billions of financial transactions which are used to develop innovative solutions.

"RBC has once again secured its position on the Evident AI Index podium this year, driven by consistently high scores in its approach to Innovation, Leadership and Transparency. Notably, RBC boasts the second-most AI use cases with documented outcomes across the Index and is one of a handful of banks setting an AI-specific financial return target," said Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Evident.

Enhancing the client experience
RBC is using AI to help clients to shape their own banking experiences – saving time, enhancing security and adding meaningful value to daily interactions. RBC's call centre uses genAI to support advisors with a number of tasks from faster access to knowledge, to executing activities on their behalf, saving the advisor time to focus on the client.

RBC's Capital Markets business uses Aiden, an AI-powered platform to power multiple aspects of its business including accelerated document preparation and summarization. Aiden QuickTakes, part of a suite of AI agents in AidenResearch, reduced earnings related publication times by up to 60 per cent, expanded ticker coverage, and helped optimize time spent on higher-value activities, like helping clients make more informed investment decisions.

Preparing the workforce for the future
RBC recently launched Leading in Artificial Intelligence, AI learning for senior executives and board members in North America, and AI Academy, a central resource for all employees to learn the fundamentals of AI through various course offerings. The bank is rolling out customized genAI tools to its employees with almost a third of its workforce currently using the technology.

About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 101,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our more than 19 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.‎

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/peopleandplanet.

For more information, please contact:
Briana D'Archi, RBC Corporate Communications

SOURCE RBC