Artificial intelligence is no longer scarce, experimental, or prohibitively expensive.In banking, access to AI has never been the constraint. What determines whether AI creates value—or quietly adds complexity—is how leaders choose to deploy it, govern it, and absorb the consequences of the change it introduces. Technology can scale decisions. It cannot make them. Why AI…

Editor’s note:This essay examines a recurring pattern in banking transformations—where programs launch successfully but struggle to sustain meaningful change over time. It applies the leadership lens explored in Breaking the Legacy Code to the realities of regulated financial institutions. Across the industry, a significant number of digital transformation initiatives in banks fail to deliver lasting…