Every April, Jamie Dimon (CEO – photo) publishes his annual letter to JPMorganChase shareholders, and every April, the financial press dissects his views on the economy, geopolitics, and regulatory reform – and ignores the technology section.
Here’s what Dimon said about technology, and why every banker and fintech executive should pay close attention, according to Ron Shevlin, Chief Research Officer at Cornerstone Advisors:
1️⃣ 𝗔 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻. Dimon lists Block, Citadel Securities, Revolut, and Stripe as the most successful nontraditional competitors. No surprise there. But he then cites the “blockchain-based wave” as a distinct, new threat category. Translation: the fintech disruption of the 2010s was wave one. Tokenization is wave two. And JPMorgan is treating them as separate battles. Despite being publicly skeptical of Bitcoin, Dimon has spent years building out JPMorgan’s blockchain capabilities.
2️⃣ 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁. Dimon’s framing of AI goes well beyond the standard „AI will improve efficiency” trope you find on LinkedIn. Despite saying “we do not yet know exactly how AI will unfold,” he goes on to claim that AI will: 1) affect virtually every function, application and process at JPMorgan; 2) cure some cancers and reduce accidental deaths; 3) shorten the work week in developed economies; and 4) deploy more rapidly than electricity or the internet did.
3️⃣ $𝟳𝟮𝟱 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻. Buried in the macroeconomic risk section, Dimon mentions that five hyperscalers (Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple) will spend $725 billion on AI-driven capital spending and construction in 2026, up from $450 billion in 2025. The scale creates two problems for smaller banks: 1) the infrastructure gap between large banks and community institutions is widening at a pace that periodic tech upgrades cannot close, and 2) the talent required to actually deploy AI—not buy it, but configure it, govern it, and integrate it—is getting absorbed by the hyperscalers.
4️⃣ 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲. In a section on new products, Dimon wrote that the risks around customer data misuse are „likely to get far worse with AI and agentic commerce.” He framed this as an opportunity for JPMorgan to position itself as a trusted intermediary—essentially a consumer data guardian—and flagged plans to roll out products around “control of personal data, safe commerce and customer-friendly algorithms.” Community-based institutions should ask themselves who their answer to that question is.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗗𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆? Find out in the latest Fintech Snark Tank post on Forbes.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„To be honest I think that Sinaia, your conference, is much better then Davos.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
