A retail bank's AI book
Cards, fraud, KYC, wealth — governed like capital; two get cut.
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Context
A retail bank runs twelve AI initiatives across cards, fraud, lending, and wealth. Each competes for the same delivery capacity and cloud budget; leadership wants a defensible kill/scale/hold call, not a champion's wish-list.
The decision
Fund on risk-adjusted ROI, not enthusiasm — the KYC pilot and the collections assist both destroy value at their current stage and should be cut to feed the two that are ready to scale.
What most miss
The hard call isn't what to scale — it's killing a well-liked pilot. A portfolio where nothing is ever killed isn't governed; it's unattended.
Stakes
Two negative-ROI initiatives hold the delivery capacity the scale-ready ones need — the cost of not deciding is the opportunity cost.
First-hand · Business of AI · verified 2026-07-03
Sources: Financial-services AI portfolio governance — first-hand (cards & payments, American Express); Stage-gated capital-allocation practice