Canada's Big Five banks collectively manage $7+ trillion in assets and employ over 400,000 people. They're also among the most aggressive AI adopters in global banking—with RBC ranking #3 worldwide for AI maturity and all five Canadian banks placing in the top 30 of the Evident AI Index.
This guide breaks down how each bank is deploying AI, the research labs driving innovation, and what it means for AI careers in Canadian finance.
How Do Canadian Banks Rank in AI Globally?
The Evident AI Index evaluates 50 major global banks across four pillars: Talent, Innovation, Leadership, and Transparency. Canadian banks consistently outperform their global peers.
2025 Evident AI Index Rankings
RBC is the only Canadian bank in the global top 10. TD's drop from #9 to #13 reflects intensified competition, not declining capabilities—the bank opened a new Layer 6 office in New York in April 2025.
"Canadian banks demonstrated the highest level of AI maturity across the six regions examined in the Evident AI Index." — Evident Insights, 2024 Banking AI Index
What Is Borealis AI (RBC)?
Borealis AI is RBC's dedicated AI research institute and the largest bank-owned AI lab in Canada.
Borealis AI Overview
Borealis AI operates as a curiosity-driven research centre, publishing peer-reviewed research while solving practical problems in financial services.
Research Output (2025)
Borealis researchers recently published at major conferences including:
- ICML 2025: "TabReason: A Reinforcement Learning-Enhanced LLM for Accurate and Explainable Tabular Data Prediction"
- CVPR 2025: Championing inclusion and responsible AI in partnership with WiCV and LatinX in AI
Borealis AI Fellowship Program
The RBC Borealis Fellowship supports emerging Canadian AI researchers with $10,000 CAD awards for graduate studies. Applications for the 2025-2026 program closed January 25, 2026.
Key Projects
- Mule Account Fraud Detection: Joint experiment with Vector Institute to identify synthetic accounts used for money laundering
- North Star Research: Program addressing challenges in compute and data availability for ML research
- Fraud Modernization: Transitioning from static rules to adaptive, real-time risk scoring using ML
RBC's 2025 Investor Day revealed the bank analyzes 11 trillion security events annually using AI-powered systems.
What Is Layer 6 (TD Bank)?
Layer 6 is TD Bank's AI centre of excellence, acquired in 2018 for approximately $100 million USD—the first major AI acquisition by a Canadian bank.
Layer 6 Overview
The Founding Team
The Layer 6 founders represent a direct connection to Canada's AI research ecosystem:
All three founders studied under or alongside Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto, establishing a direct research lineage from Canada's AI godfather to one of its largest banks.
2025 Expansion
In April 2025, TD opened a new Layer 6 office at One Vanderbilt in New York City with an initial team of 20 data scientists, ML engineers, and GenAI specialists. This expansion supports TD Bank America's Most Convenient Bank operations.
Technology Partnerships
TD partners with both major LLM providers:
- OpenAI: Currently using OpenAI models
- Cohere: Partnership with Toronto-based competitor
How Is Scotiabank Using AI?
Scotiabank has built a reputation for responsible AI culture and practical agentic AI deployment.
Key AI Initiatives
Awards and Recognition
- DataIQ AI Awards 2024: Most Innovative Use of AI (Client-Side) for chatbot
- DataIQ 2024: Best Responsible AI Program—"a pioneering initiative in the financial industry"
Google Cloud Partnership
In April 2024, Scotiabank named Google Cloud its "enterprise cloud platform of choice," enabling access to Vertex AI and Gemini for its 55 million customers across multiple countries.
Agentic AI Focus
Scotiabank's Global Banking and Markets predicts 2025 will be "the year of agentic AI"—autonomous systems that can understand intent, identify entities, and execute multi-step tasks without human intervention.
What Is BMO Doing in AI?
BMO has taken a strategic approach to AI leadership, appointing its first Chief AI and Data Officer in October 2024.
Leadership
Kristin Milchanowski joined BMO as Chief Artificial Intelligence and Data Officer in October 2024. She holds a PhD in Decision Sciences and completed post-doctoral AI studies at Oxford, bringing over two decades of financial sector AI experience.
AI-Powered Tools
Partnerships
- Creative Destruction Lab (CDL-Montreal): Helping AI startups scale
- IBM Quantum Network: Extending quantum computing leadership
BMO maintains a dedicated BMO AI team on Medium publishing research and updates on their AI capabilities.
How Is CIBC Deploying AI?
CIBC launched the most ambitious enterprise AI rollout among Canadian banks in 2025.
CIBC AI (CAI) Platform
Hiring Plans
CIBC announced plans to hire 200+ data and AI roles over the next 12 months, focusing on:
- AI governance
- Customer experience
- "Resilient and trustworthy AI solutions"
Responsible AI Leadership
CIBC became the first major Canadian bank to sign the Government of Canada's Voluntary Code of Conduct on Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems (March 2025).
Technology Approach
CIBC leverages its Azure Innovation Lab to test models and maintains relationships with OpenAI, Cohere, and other providers.
What AI Use Cases Are Banks Deploying?
Fraud Detection
Canadian banks lose billions annually to fraud, with Canadians reporting $638 million in fraud losses in 2024 alone.
RBC's fraud modernization initiative transitions from rule-based systems to adaptive ML scoring, analyzing 11 trillion security events annually.
"90% of financial institutions are combating emerging fraud with AI-powered solutions." — Feedzai, AI Fraud Trends 2025
Customer Personalization
McKinsey estimates AI-powered personalization could generate $1.7-3 trillion in global value for banks.
Operations and Efficiency
What Do AI Careers at Canadian Banks Pay?
Canadian banks are major employers of AI talent, competing with tech companies and startups for machine learning engineers and researchers.
RBC Compensation
TD / Layer 6 Compensation
Why Work at a Bank?
The trade-off: bank compensation typically trails top tech companies by 20-30%, but offers better work-life balance and Canadian job security.
What's Next for AI in Canadian Banking?
Emerging Trends
- Agentic AI: Autonomous systems handling multi-step tasks (Scotiabank's AIDox)
- Quantum Computing: BMO joined IBM Quantum Network; D-Wave partnerships emerging
- GenAI Enterprise Rollout: CIBC's bank-wide platform sets template
- Responsible AI: CIBC's government code signing signals regulatory alignment
- US Expansion: Layer 6's NYC office extends Canadian AI capabilities
Investment Levels
- RBC: $5+ billion in technology investment (2025 Investor Day)
- All Big Five: Combined technology spend exceeds $15 billion annually
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Canadian bank is best at AI?
RBC ranks #1 in Canada and #3 globally for AI maturity according to the Evident AI Index 2025, a position it has held for four consecutive years. RBC's Borealis AI lab employs 950+ people across four Canadian cities and publishes research at top conferences like ICML and CVPR.
What is Borealis AI?
Borealis AI is RBC's dedicated AI research institute, founded in 2016. With 950+ employees in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Waterloo, it performs fundamental and applied machine learning research. Key focus areas include reinforcement learning, NLP, deep learning, and fraud detection. Borealis also runs a fellowship program providing $10,000 CAD awards to Canadian graduate students.
What happened to Layer 6?
Layer 6 was acquired by TD Bank in January 2018 for approximately $100 million USD—the first major AI acquisition by a Canadian bank. Founded by Jordan Jacobs, Tomi Poutanen, and Maksims Volkovs (all connected to Geoffrey Hinton's research ecosystem), it now serves as TD's AI centre of excellence with 100+ employees. In April 2025, TD opened a Layer 6 office in New York City.
How much do AI jobs at Canadian banks pay?
Machine Learning Engineers at Canadian banks earn CA$88,000-$160,000 base salary, with total compensation reaching $200,000+ at senior levels. Research Scientists at Borealis AI (RBC) and Layer 6 (TD) can earn CA$200,000-$350,000 in total compensation. AI Software Engineers at RBC average $135,000-$200,000.
Are Canadian banks hiring AI talent?
Yes, aggressively. CIBC announced 200+ AI hires over 12 months. RBC, TD, BMO, and Scotiabank all have active AI recruiting. Common roles include ML Engineers, Data Scientists, Research Scientists, GenAI Specialists, and AI Product Managers. Banks compete with tech companies and startups for talent.
How are banks using AI for fraud detection?
Canadian banks use machine learning for real-time transaction scoring, replacing static rule-based systems. RBC analyzes 11 trillion security events annually. AI applications include mule account detection (synthetic identities), deepfake identification, and anti-money laundering pattern recognition. Feedzai reports 90% of financial institutions now use AI-powered fraud solutions.
What is CIBC AI (CAI)?
CIBC AI (CAI) is CIBC's enterprise Generative AI platform, launched bank-wide in May 2025 after a pilot starting July 2024. The platform saved 200,000+ hours during pilot and grew from 500 to 7,500 users in eight months. It handles document summarization, email drafting, research compilation, and other text-based tasks.
Do Canadian banks work with Cohere?
Yes. TD Bank partners with both OpenAI and Cohere for its AI initiatives. CIBC tests models from OpenAI, Cohere, and other providers through its Azure Innovation Lab. The relationship between Canadian banks and Canadian AI companies like Cohere represents a natural ecosystem alignment.
Related Reading
Canadian AI Ecosystem
- Canadian AI VCs Complete Directory — Who invests in AI startups
- Cohere Enterprise LLM Guide — Canada's most valuable AI company
- Canadian AI Unicorns — Billion-dollar success stories
AI Careers in Canada
- AI Salaries in Canada 2026 — Compensation by role and city
- Toronto-Waterloo Corridor Guide — Where the banks operate
- Vector Institute Complete Guide — Research pipeline to banking
AI Leaders
- Geoffrey Hinton Complete Guide — Mentor to Layer 6 founders
- Aidan Gomez and Cohere — Bank AI partner
- Radical Ventures Guide — Where Layer 6 founders went next
AI Technology
- SR&ED Tax Credits for AI — R&D funding (banks claim too)
- D-Wave Quantum Computing — BMO's quantum partner
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Data current as of January 2026. Information from Evident AI Index, bank press releases, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and public filings.
