Cloudera: 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.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the report, based on a survey of 155 senior executives worldwide, shows 91 percent of organizations view a hybrid AI approach as highly valuable, and 62 percent are already deploying AI across public clouds, data centers, 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 percent) said fragmented data hinders effective AI deployment, while 84 percent rated unified data governance and security as ‘critical’ or ‘very important’.

Cloudera Global Director of AI Solutions for Financial Services, Adrien Chenailler, emphasized that a data-anywhere, hybrid strategy is non-negotiable. He stated that financial institutions need a unified data and AI platform that ensures consistent governance and security across all environments to bridge the implementation gap.

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 percent of firms have implemented at least one AI or machine learning use case, only 26 percent have fully integrated AI into core operations, leaving many still at the experimentation stage. Security 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.