What the smartest financial institutions are doing with data in 2025

Data usability is an industry-wide challenge 

Financial institutions have no shortage of data. But much of it is still fragmented, hard to trust, and trapped in systems. We opened with a simple question: “You already have the data. But is it usable?”

For most FIs, the honest answer is: not really.

• 2 in 3 IT leaders say they can’t fully use the data they already have
• 80% say data is critical, but nearly half say it’s too hard to access

This isn’t a volume problem. It’s a usability problem. And solving it doesn’t take five years or a massive lift and shift migration. It takes the right foundation with a pragmatic, business-aligned approach, powered by a leading data intelligence platform.

FIs are prioritizing agile execution, not sequential multi-year builds

Leading financial institutions aren’t waiting years for ROI. They’re identifying high-value use cases, like Customer 360, segmentation, or risk modeling, and delivering impact early while building scalable, governed platforms in parallel. 

Modern programs focus less on multi-year builds and more on agile, outcome-driven execution. From day one, successful teams prioritize three strategies:

• Agile Execution for Rapid Proofs of Value: Prioritized use cases, like next best action, are delivered in sprints, validating architecture & unlocking business value early and fast.
• Governance-Aligned, Democratization-Ready Architecture: By embedding governance early and designing flexible data models, teams enable secure, scalable access across business domains.
• Foundational Technologies that Scale: Integrated platforms like Databricks, with native capabilities such as Unity Catalog, deliver the governance, lineage, and orchestration needed to scale securely, from initial wins to enterprise-wide modernization

Top Databricks announcements that reinforce this direction

1. Lakebase: Postgres-compatible transactional engine, makes operational data instantly usable, fueling real-time activation and eliminating batch bottlenecks.
2. Lakebridge: Accelerates AI-assisted migration from legacy warehouses, critical for institutions modernizing decades-old systems.

Lakehouse architecture is enabling scale, compliance, and speed

Leading FIs are unifying their BI, AI, and data workloads on a single Lakehouse architecture via Databricks. This shift eliminates duplication, simplifies infrastructure, and enables real-time analytics, without compromising governance or security.

FIs pointed to Unity Catalog as a key enabler. As a centralized control plane, it helps teams scale access confidently while maintaining compliance. With fine-grained permissions, built-in lineage, and auditability, it supports data democratization without losing control.

Top Databricks announcements that reinforce this direction

• Unity Catalog’s enhancements now support Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg, & expanded discovery tools, bringing more enterprise readiness to governed data democratization.“UC” is turning into the control center for data, no matter the format or cloud. Think simple permissions & a smart search bar with traceability to the right tables.
• Agent Bricks, Databricks’ new workspace for building and deploying AI agents, offers enterprise-grade evaluation, tuning, and safety, ensuring FIs can build AI capabilities on a trusted, governed foundation.

Zero-ETL is a key growth driver 

Over 65% of banking customers have only one product with their primary institution. That’s not just a loyalty issue, it’s a missed opportunity caused by delayed data activation. 

With Zero-ETL architecture and Databricks’ Medallion Lakehouse, banks can bypass slow, complex data pipelines and give teams direct, governed access to fresh, reliable datasets, without redundant ingestion layers or engineering friction. The payoff:

• Accelerated time-to-insight for use cases like segmentation and campaign optimization
• Reduced complexity and overhead across the data stack
• Real-time enablement of AI-driven journeys and Next Best Action campaigns

For example, in deposit growth, banks are using Zero-ETL to power hyper-targeted offers and real-time service triggers,driving stronger engagement, and higher conversion.

Leading FIs are embracing a data product mindset 

Rather than migrating legacy pipelines or simply enabling BI dashboards, leading FIs are building data products tied to business outcomes. This approach:

• Accelerates delivery of value-aligned use cases
• Enables faster BI adoption across diverse analyst communities
• Establishes reusable foundations for AI and future capabilities

This shift allows teams to design once and scale across use cases, far more sustainable than one-off BI or ad hoc ETL projects.

Pragmatic democratization and acceleration

Panelists reinforced that data democratization must be tailored to each FIs maturity and risk profile. Some expose Bronze-level data to advanced users like data scientists; others limit access to curated Gold datasets to ensure governance. Databricks’ flexibility in supporting these models was key to adoption, especially as FIs look to enable AI responsibly.

Small Teams, Big Impact: How FIs Are Scaling Smarter

FIs are proving that you don’t need a massive team to drive transformation with Databricks. By embracing its integrated platform, empowering data-savvy talent, not just senior engineers, and reusing tools and patterns, panelists dispelled the myth that Databricks is “too technical” for smaller teams. The result: faster delivery, less overhead, and greater agility.

Top Databricks announcements that reinforce this direction

• Databricks One gives business users code-free access to AI/BI dashboards and tools like Genie, their natural language query assistant.
• Databricks Free Edition lets any analyst or aspiring data scientist explore and build democratization at every level of the enterprise.