Jessica O'Connor87% of bank data analysts have experienced improved job satisfaction over the past year due to the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), research from Alteryx has revealed.
According to the AI platform’s 2025 State of the Data Analyst report, over 95% of data analysts in banks have seen an uplift in their role’s strategic impact in the past year as investments in AI and analytics automation reshaped the industry.
The report, which surveyed 280 global analysts working in banking, highlighted how almost half (46%) of data analysts in banks said using AI has surpassed their expectations.
Over half (53%) said AI makes it easier to learn new analytical functions and features, and almost all viewed learning AI (91%) and analytics automation (90%) as key to career growth.
Meanwhile, eight in 10 said thet still using spreadsheets to clean and prepare data, a task taking up six to 10 hours out of the working week for 43% of industry analysts.
This is despite data complexity being the number one challenge faced in preparing data for analysis – cited by 59% of analysts.
Almost half (47%) of industry data analysts said they use between five and 10 disparate tools and platforms for regular data preparation and analysis.
In addition, over half (53%) said they would prefer to cut this tech stack to one to four tools.
Jay Henderson, SVP of product at Alteryx, said: “Banking executives building the ROI case for investments in AI and analytics automation need only turn to their analyst team.
“They’ll hear how AI and analytics automation are the root of higher job satisfaction for analysts playing a more strategic role internally.
“But our findings are also a wake-up call. Analysts currently face friction that can only be remedied by transforming how data is processed and managed.
“Banks that can overcome this will be best positioned to realise the true potential of their investment in AI and automation.”
