For the past two decades, choosing a financial institution began with a traditional web search engine that returned ten organic links, leaving the responsibility of filtering information to the user. Today, that paradigm has changed radically: a growing proportion of customers now turn to conversational artificial intelligence assistants that don't display a list of links, but instead offer a written recommendation naming two or three specific institutions directly.
The report, titled «La banca panameña ante la inteligencia artificial», published in July 2026, examines this transformation by analyzing a particularly dense market: more than fifty institutions operating under the supervision of the Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá, serving a population of roughly four million people. This joint research—developed by nine international institutions including Centria Group, Quality Leadership University, the University of Málaga, and the European Digital Marketing Association—provides quantitative data on how AI makes brands in the sector visible or invisible.
The AI Funnel: Concentration and Exclusion in the Banking Sector
Visibility in language models doesn't work like classic web ranking. While a search engine lets users browse multiple pages of results, AI condenses its answer into a very limited space, creating an enormous competitive gap between market leaders and the rest of the players.
Absolute concentration: Six financial institutions (Banco General, BAC, Banistmo, Banco Nacional de Panamá, Caja de Ahorros, and Global Bank) account for 73% of all sector mentions in conversational assistants.
The undisputed leader: Banco General tops the responses with an aggregate presence of 97.5% (96% on ChatGPT and 99% on Gemini), almost always occupying the top spot in the recommendations.
The steep drop-off: From the seventh position onward, brand presence falls below 24%, and once it dips below the 5% threshold, an institution no longer holds a stable position and becomes a merely occasional or anecdotal appearance.
Methodological note: The report's conclusions are strictly descriptive, not evaluative. The study documents brand visibility in a specific digital channel and does not make any judgments about the solvency, financial soundness, or service quality of any banking institution.
How the Data Was Collected: The Report’s Methodology
To obtain a real picture of how generative engines behave, the research structured a rigorous analysis based on native interactions from the region:
Simulated queries: 320 queries were submitted in Spanish to ChatGPT and Gemini from Panama, mimicking the real questions a consumer might ask when looking for the best bank, low fees, options for small businesses, or financing.
Blocks and repetition: The questions were divided into two blocks (general recommendation and product intent) and repeated five times identically to measure the consistency of the results.
Comparison with search engines: The same questions were evaluated on Google and Bing, gathering more than 10,000 results and processing over 165,000 total records through to the completion of the source-verification phase.
| Banking Institution | Overall Presence | ChatGPT | Gemini | Average Position |
Banco General | 97.5% | 96% | 99% | 2.3 |
BAC | 78.4% | 66% | 91% | 3.6 |
Banistmo | 71.6% | 64% | 79% | 4.3 |
Banco Nacional de Panamá | 64.7% | 61% | 69% | 3.7 |
Caja de Ahorros | 61.6% | 57% | 66% | 3.9 |
Global Bank | 59.7% | 64% | 55% | 4.3 |
The Niche Strategy: How Mid-Sized Banks Gain Relevance
Although mid-sized institutions score very low on generic questions about which is the best bank in the market, their visibility rebounds noticeably when users narrow their query to highly specialized financial products:
Private banking: Institutions like MMG Bank gain significant prominence in exclusive wealth management segments.
Foreign trade: Specialized institutions such as Bladex stand out directly in corporate international trade queries.
Mortgages and housing: State-owned and mortgage-focused banks, such as Caja de Ahorros, strongly dominate recommendations aimed at first-time homebuyers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What exactly does the report on Panamanian banking and artificial intelligence measure?
The study analyzes the visibility of, and the frequency with which, brands in Panama's banking sector are recommended or mentioned by conversational AI assistants (ChatGPT and Gemini) in response to user queries.
Why is it claimed that artificial intelligence is changing the rules of traditional SEO?
Unlike traditional search engines, which offer multiple organic links that users can browse freely, AI selects and condenses information into a very small number of direct recommendations. If a brand doesn't make that select group, it's left entirely out of the user's consideration, without the user even being aware of the absent competitors.
Does this report mean that banks with less AI presence are financially worse?
No. The study's authors emphasize that the report is strictly descriptive and methodological in nature. It does not evaluate the solvency, operational quality, or financial soundness of any institution; it exclusively measures the extent to which each one appears in AI conversational channels.
