AI surges as focus for strategic planning
But digital transformation is still the most widespread goal of planners
Artificial intelligence surged in importance as a strategic goal of central banks in the past year, data from the Strategic Planning Benchmarks 2026 shows.
Across all 44 central banks that provided data, 50% of respondents report AI is a “key goal” of their strategic plans in 2026, up from 30.8% in 2025. The 19.2 percentage point difference is the largest change of any item in this section of the benchmarks.
The topics “data” (up 12.9 percentage points to 79.5%) and “cyber risk” (up 10.6
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