AI Seen as Key to Closing Service Gaps in Ghana’s Banking Sector – KPMG Survey

As customer expectations continue to rise across Ghana’s banking sector, a growing gap between what customers demand and what banks are able to deliver is placing renewed pressure on financial institutions to rethink service delivery. A new survey by KPMG suggests that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could play a decisive role in closing this gap and strengthening the resilience of the sector.

The 2025 West Africa Banking Industry Customer Experience Survey by KPMG, cited by The High Street Journal, identifies persistent structural challenges affecting both SME and corporate banking customers. These challenges, the survey notes, have become increasingly visible as customers compare banking services with the speed, convenience and personalisation offered by technology-driven industries.

On the demand side, customers are calling for greater transparency, faster transactions, personalised services and enhanced security. These expectations are reflected in common complaints such as unclear fees, slow service delivery, complex procedures and unreliable digital platforms. For many customers, these issues undermine trust and reduce confidence in banking systems.

Banks, however, face their own operational constraints. According to the survey, several institutions continue to struggle with digital reliability, delayed credit processing, slow response times and technical instability. Even where digital platforms are available, service failures often force customers to pursue resolutions across multiple channels, including branches, call centres and online platforms, leading to frustration and inefficiency.

AI as a Turning Point

The survey highlights AI as a unique opportunity to address both customer expectations and institutional challenges simultaneously. While banks already deploy basic AI and machine learning tools for functions such as fraud detection and transaction monitoring, the technology is evolving rapidly.

The transition from traditional machine learning to generative AI and now to agentic AI is expected to redefine banking operations. Agentic AI systems, which are capable of making decisions and taking actions with minimal human input, could significantly transform customer experience.

Such systems could proactively detect and resolve failed transactions before customers lodge complaints, enable chatbots to handle complex issues without repeated escalations, and improve credit assessment processes by analysing risk more quickly and accurately. This, the survey suggests, could substantially reduce loan processing times and improve service efficiency.

Ghana’s Banks at an Early Stage

In Ghana, the adoption of AI within the banking sector remains relatively limited. Most banks have confined implementation to specific functions rather than pursuing organisation-wide transformation. However, the survey indicates that momentum is building and that the long-term direction is clear.

Banks that position AI as a strategic capability rather than an experimental tool are likely to be better equipped to address long-standing service deficiencies. For customers, this could result in faster service delivery, fewer operational errors, more relevant products and more dependable digital platforms.

For banks, the benefits extend to improved resilience. AI-driven systems are better able to scale during periods of high demand, recover more quickly from disruptions and operate efficiently in an increasingly competitive financial landscape.

From Trials to Transformation

The survey concludes that experimentation alone is no longer sufficient. As speed, convenience and trust become non-negotiable expectations, banks must deploy AI with clear purpose and measurable impact. Priority areas include customer responsiveness, credit processing efficiency and technical stability.

If effectively implemented, AI could help Ghana’s banking sector shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive service delivery, creating banking experiences that are seamless, dependable and customer-focused, while reinforcing the sector’s long-term stability.