Celebrating Data + AI Innovation in Financial Services: Announcing Snowflake’s AI Innovator in Financial Services Award Winners for the Industry

The financial services industry has an immense, rapidly expanding volume of data — one of the largest in the world. It's also become one of the quickest sectors to adopt and implement AI. Embracing AI hasn’t been optional for many firms; it’s a necessity. In a world defined by demanding regulations, ever-higher client expectations and fierce competition, companies can’t afford to jeopardize the success of their business by not innovating. Subsequently, the goal for leading firms has shifted from merely adopting an AI and data strategy to implementing a comprehensive strategy that makes it possible to achieve real competitive advantages..

What truly sets the industry's leaders apart is a clear, decisive strategy that treats data of all types — structured, unstructured and multimodal — as a highly valuable asset, and they know that the real power comes when you bring AI to the data, not the other way around.

These pioneering organizations don't just talk about innovation; they turn their vision into measurable business outcomes. They excel in the market by:

• Intentionally adapting their data and AI strategy: They move past isolated, departmental projects to unify data as a cohesive, strategic asset across the entire organization.

• Identifying and delivering on core business use cases: They directly translate advanced data capabilities into tangible results like increasing revenue, mitigating risk and improving operational efficiency.

• Delivering clear ROI and driving real organizational transformation: They are fundamentally changing how the business operates and generating significant, quantifiable returns on their technology investments.

This year, we are thrilled to recognize two outstanding financial services leaders as Snowflake’s 2026 AI Innovator in Financial Services award winners for their groundbreaking work: DTCC and J.P. Morgan Chase.

DTCC: Automating Data Governance with AI

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, identified an opportunity to embed gen AI into its data processes to unlock self-service analytics, smarter data governance and AL/ML acceleration. This approach enables DTCC to significantly improve efficiency and consistency while empowering their data stewards to focus on quality and impact. By automating manual processes through Snowflake Cortex LLM, DTCC was able to advance proactive, intelligent automation, enabling their data stewards to focus on higher-value activities, further accelerating transformative efforts while elevating data as a strategic asset.  

"This award recognizes the work DTCC has done to build a robust data platform that serves our business needs today and enables future innovation,” said Diane Schmidt, DTCC Managing Director, Enterprise Data & Corporate Technology. “We’ve partnered with Snowflake to build capabilities that leverage our data for advanced analytics and enable new AI opportunities so our teams can make even better data-driven decisions.” 

J.P. Morgan Chase: AI-Powered Innovation in Payments

As the world’s largest bank by market capitalization, J.P. Morgan Chase continues to set the benchmark for data-driven excellence in the industry. Their data strategy is laser-focused on creating measurable business impact and supporting sustainable growth, showcasing a deep commitment to innovation at scale.

Within the firm, J.P. Morgan Payments Merchant Services business is leading the industry through its use of Cortex AI, and its vision is already looking toward the next frontier of data and AI strategy.

“We’re leading the payments industry by delivering modern, innovative client reporting and AI-powered insights — all built on a foundation of robust data capabilities. As we move into an era where autonomous agents will unlock even greater value from our data ecosystem, we remain committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Our partnership with Snowflake has been instrumental in driving this progress,” said Tony Wimmer, Head of Data & Analytics, J.P. Morgan Payments.

This strategic commitment to maximizing data utility is echoed across the division. 

“A data platform powered by AI and robust data management capabilities has the potential to transform vast and complex datasets into actionable insights, enabling organizations to make faster and smarter decisions. This approach not only accelerates innovation at every level but also creates measurable business impact and supports sustainable growth. At J.P. Morgan Payments, we are proud to be at the forefront of this transformation, driving innovation in partnership with Snowflake and setting new standards for data-driven excellence in the industry,” says Sathish Sivaramakrishnan, Global Head of Technology for Merchant Services, J.P. Morgan Payments. 

A huge congratulations to our winners on your well-deserved recognition! We look forward to seeing the continued innovation from both DTCC and J.P. Morgan Payments.