SouthState Bank Corp

“We continue to make progress on our priorities of balance sheet growth, opportunistic hiring, active share repurchases and building our artificial intelligence capabilities,” said John C. Corbett, SouthState’s Chief Executive Officer. “The second quarter featured solid loan growth, a stable net interest margin, unchanged deposit costs, and improved efficiency. Asset quality trends also improved, with a decline in non-accruals and charge-offs of just 6 basis points. Over the past year, we’ve retired nearly 5% of our share count, raised our dividend by 11% and grown tangible book value by 13%. We remain focused on delivering for our shareholders.”

2026 FOCUS 7 Expanding sales force Driving meaningful balance sheet growth Share repurchases supported by robust earnings Leveraging AI to drive speed and scale 2026 FOCUS

GenAI Knowledge Assistant AI at SouthState Microsoft Copilot Adoption Internal Efficiencies Customer Experience Experimentation • Chat interface for policy & procedure questions • Launched in early 2025 • Integrated in daily workflow • 1.1K+ average questions answered per day • Call prep for bankers • Citizen agentic development • Wealth Management estate planning • Commercial loan onboarding • Expanded self-service in call center Marketing: • New AI-ready website with enhanced search engine optimization (SEO) • Increased personalization in customer outreach • Content generation efficiencies Call Center: • Real-time reference material suggestions to agent during live calls • Customer call sentiment monitoring • Call quality checks & wrap-up • Voice & call fraud detection • Automated Credit Spreads ~90% performed by AI • Code Development - 80% of monthly code is AI-assisted • BSA Sanctions Review • Factoring Invoice Review – 20% increase in accuracy & 75% reduction in employee time allocation • 2,500+ premium users & 2,200+ active basic users • 12K+ average prompts per day Team Support: • Weekly office hours • Hands-on workshops • Required & optional training 25

2026 FOCUS 7 Expanding sales force Driving meaningful balance sheet growth Share repurchases supported by robust earnings Leveraging AI to drive speed and scale 2026 FOCUS

BUILDING SPEED AND SCALE THROUGH AI 24 Team Member Productivity Optimized Workflows Process Transformation Automated credit spreading up 57% over last 12 months INDIVIDUAL DEPARTMENTAL ENTERPRISE ADOPTION & ENABLEMENT Internal knowledge search up 80% over last 12 months Team member Copilot usage up 42% since January 2026 AI capabilities in production within 77 platforms FOUNDATIONAL OBJECTIVES Standardize AI risk framework Educate all team members on AI Launch AI experimentation lab Formal Program Dedicated to AI Execution & Results

● the pace of adoption and use of artificial intelligence tools by us and our third-party vendors and service providers;

● the impact of technological changes, including artificial intelligence and online and mobile banking, on our business model, and that we may have fewer resources than many competitors to invest in technological improvements;

Our current strategic plan contains growth, investment, risk management and efficiency initiatives in order to create a better and more profitable Company and remain competitive with other bank and non-bank financial services providers. To achieve our strategic goals, we must successfully execute these initiatives. Our current initiatives include, but are not limited to, organically growing our business in our core market and surrounding areas, continuing to grow our middle market and larger corporate banking and correspondent divisions, implementing an AI strategy to be able to adopt appropriate AI capabilities internally and from vendors to enhance our efficiency with appropriate controls in place to maintain accuracy and reduce or eliminate bias; and building upon our digital banking initiatives by continuing to implement digital banking platforms and expanding our payment capabilities, including by being able to act as a reserve and issuer for stablecoins, continuing to enhance our technology and cybersecurity infrastructure and our risk management framework. While we have met our strategic initiatives in the past, there is no guarantee that these initiatives will be successful in supporting growth or achieving the expected efficiencies and revenue enhancements that we anticipate.

Technological changes, including artificial intelligence and online and mobile banking, have the potential of disrupting our business model, and we may have fewer resources than many competitors to invest in technological improvements.

The financial services industry continues to undergo rapid technological changes with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services, including artificial intelligence tools to enhance efficiencies, as well as mobile and online banking services. Changes in customer behaviors have increased the need to offer these options to our customers. The past several years accelerated technological change as our employees and the customers and communities to which we provide products and services converted to remote work, shopping and banking as we experienced supply chain interruptions.

In addition to serving clients better, investments in, and the effective use of, technology, including artificial intelligence, may increase efficiency and may enable financial institutions to reduce costs. We have adopted a formal AI Strategy and are making focused investments in AI tools and automation and other technology solutions to improve both our customer facing and back-office services for internal efficiencies, investments may not be sufficient or provide the anticipated benefits or desired return. We can make no assurance that investments will be sufficient to increase efficiencies, retain existing customers or attract new customers in the future.

The adoption and use of artificial intelligence tools by us and our third-party vendors and service providers may increase the risk of errors, omissions, unfair treatment or fraudulent behavior by our employees, clients, or counterparties, or other third parties.

Similar wording appears in 7 other banks' reports.

Our adoption and use of artificial intelligence, including generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, and similar tools and technologies that collect, aggregate, analyze or generate data or other materials or content (collectively, “AI”), for internal use has increased our efficiency, and we expect to continue to adopt such tools as appropriate, in line with our AI Strategy. In addition, we expect our third-party vendors and service providers to increasingly develop and incorporate AI into their product offerings faster than we are able to do so independently. There are significant and evolving risks involved in utilizing AI, and no assurance can be provided that our or our third-party vendors’ or service providers’ use of AI will enhance our or our third-party vendors’ or service providers’ products or services or produce the intended results. The adoption and incorporation of such AI tools can lead to concerns around safety and soundness, fair access to financial services, fair treatment of consumers, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Such risk can result from models being incorrectly or inadequately designed or trained, inadequate model testing or validation, narrow or limited human oversight, inadequate planning or due diligence, inappropriate or controversial data practices by developers or end-users, and other factors adversely affecting public opinion of AI and the acceptance of AI solutions. Further, generative AI has been known to, and may continue to, create biased, incomplete, inaccurate, misleading or poor-quality output or produce other discriminatory or unexpected results, errors, or inadequacies, any of which may not be easily detectable. AI solutions may also be adversely impacted by unforeseen defects, technical challenges, cyber-attacks, cybersecurity breaches, service outages or other similar incidents, or material performance issues. We have implemented an AI governance function and risk management framework that includes a risk assessment of internal and vendor AI solutions, due diligence, model validation, and controls. However, given the pace of rapid adoption of such tools by vendors and service providers, we may not be aware of the addition of AI solutions prior to such tools being introduced into our environment. Failure to adequately manage AI risks can result in erroneous results and decisions made by misinformation, unwanted forms of bias, unauthorized access to sensitive, confidential, proprietary or personal information, and violations of applicable laws and regulations, leading to operational inefficiencies, competitive harm, reputational harm, ethical challenges, legal liability, losses, fines, and other adverse impacts on our business and financial results. If we do not have sufficient rights to use the data or other material or content on which the AI tools we use rely, or to use the output of such AI tools, we also may incur liability through the violation of applicable laws and regulations, third-party intellectual property, privacy or other rights, or contracts to which we are a party. Further, our competitors or other third parties may incorporate AI into their business or operations more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively.

Similar wording appears in 7 other banks' reports.

In addition, regulation of AI is rapidly evolving as legislatures and regulators are increasingly focused on these powerful emerging technologies. The technologies underlying AI and its uses are subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including intellectual property, data privacy and cybersecurity, consumer protection, competition, equal opportunity, and fair lending laws, and are expected to be subject to increased regulation and new laws or new applications of existing laws and regulations. AI is the subject of ongoing review by various U.S. governmental and regulatory agencies, and various U.S. states are applying, or are considering applying, existing laws and regulations to AI or are considering general legal frameworks for AI. We may not be able to anticipate how to respond to these rapidly evolving frameworks, and we may need to expend resources to adjust our operations or offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal frameworks are inconsistent across jurisdictions. Furthermore, because AI technology itself is highly complex and rapidly developing, it is not possible to predict all the legal, operational or technological risks that may arise relating to the use of AI. We expect our use of AI will require additional resources, including the incurrence of additional costs, to develop and maintain our products and services to minimize potentially harmful or unintended consequences, to comply with applicable and emerging laws and regulations, to maintain or extend our competitive position, and to address any ethical, reputational, technical, operational, legal, competitive or regulatory issues which may arise as a result of any of the foregoing.

Similar wording appears in 7 other banks' reports.

We are exposed to many types of operational risk, including the risk of fraud by third parties, customers and employees, clerical recordkeeping errors and transactional errors. Like the financial services industry overall, we have seen an increase in fraudulent attempts on accounts, online transactions, and debit cards during 2025, and these attempts may continue to accelerate with the increased use of artificial intelligence to produce sophisticated malware, phishing schemes, and other fraudulent activities. While (i) our procedures are designed to follow customary, industry-specific security precautions, (ii) we use software to monitor check and online and digital transaction, (iii) we provide employees with ongoing training, table-top exercises and regular communications and guidance to combat fraud, and (iv) we have adopted additional cybersecurity tools and solutions designed to identify fraudulent attempts, our efforts might not be successful in mitigating or reducing fraudulent attempts resulting in financial losses, increased litigation risk and reputational harm.

In addition, advances in technology, such as automation and AI, may lead to workforce evolution. This could require the Company to invest in additional employee training, manage impacts on morale and retention, and compete for candidates who possess more advanced technological skills, all of which could have a negative impact on the Company’s businesses and operations.

Cybersecurity risks for banking organizations have significantly increased in recent years, in part because of the proliferation of new technologies and the use of the internet and telecommunications technologies to conduct financial transactions. For example, cybersecurity risks may increase in the future as we continue to increase our mobile payment and other internet-based product offerings and expand our internal usage of web-based products and applications and as AI tools are increasingly used for purposes of cyber-attacks, information security breaches, and other similar incidents, including for targeted social engineering attacks. In addition, cybersecurity risks have significantly increased in recent years in part due to the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, hostile foreign governments, disgruntled employees, service providers, activists and other external parties, including those involved in corporate espionage. Even the most advanced internal control environment may be vulnerable to compromise. For example, targeted social engineering attacks and “spear phishing” attacks are becoming more sophisticated and are extremely difficult to prevent. In such an attack, an attacker will attempt to fraudulently induce colleagues, customers or other users of our systems to disclose sensitive information to gain access to its data or that of its clients. Persistent attackers may succeed in penetrating defenses given enough resources, time, and motive. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently and may not be recognized until launched or until well after a breach has occurred.

In addition, fintechs and other technology-driven platforms are expanding their presence, offering a wide variety of products and services that challenge traditional banking models. The growing experimentation with and adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, stablecoins, and other digital currencies—including the potential issuance, acceptance, and integration of central bank digital currencies—have the potential to fundamentally reshape the financial services landscape. Developments in the regulatory landscape relating to emerging technologies, such as the enactment and implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025 (“GENIUS Act”) and potential enactment of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (“CLARITY Act”) or similar market structure legislation, may affect our clients’ needs and expectations for products and services. Failure to keep pace with technological advancements may adversely affect our competitive position, diminish customer satisfaction, and reduce the accessibility and relevance of our products and services.

● the impact of technological changes, including artificial intelligence and online and mobile banking, on our business model, and that we may have fewer resources than many competitors to invest in technological improvements;

● the adoption and use of artificial intelligence tools by us and our third-party vendors and service providers;

Technological changes, including artificial intelligence and online and mobile banking, have the potential of disrupting our business model, and we may have fewer resources than many competitors to invest in technological improvements.

The financial services industry continues to undergo rapid technological changes with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services, including artificial intelligence tools to enhance efficiencies, as well as mobile and online banking services. Changes in customer behaviors have increased the need to offer these options to our customers. The past several years accelerated technological change as our employees and the customers and communities to which we provide products and services converted to remote work, shopping and banking as we experienced supply chain interruptions.

In addition to serving clients better, investments in, and the effective use of, technology, including artificial intelligence, may increase efficiency and may enable financial institutions to reduce costs. Although we are making focused investments in automation and other technology solutions to improve both our customer facing and back-office services and have strategically introduced artificial intelligence tools for internal efficiencies, investments may not be sufficient or provide the anticipated benefits or desired return. We can make no assurance that investments will be sufficient to increase efficiencies, retain existing customers or attract new customers in the future.

We are exposed to many types of operational risk, including the risk of fraud by third parties, customers and employees, clerical recordkeeping errors and transactional errors. Like the financial services industry overall, we have seen an increase in fraudulent attempts on accounts, online transactions, and debit cards during 2024, and these attempts may continue to accelerate with the increased use of artificial intelligence to produce sophisticated malware, phishing schemes, and other fraudulent activities. While (i) our procedures are designed to follow customary, industry-specific security precautions, (ii) we use software to monitor check and online and digital transaction, (iii) we provide employees with ongoing training, table-top exercises and regular communications and guidance to combat fraud, and (iv) we have adopted additional cybersecurity tools and solutions designed to identify fraudulent attempts, our efforts might not be successful in mitigating or reducing fraudulent attempts resulting in financial losses, increased litigation risk and reputational harm.

The adoption and use of artificial intelligence tools by us and our third-party vendors and service providers may increase the risk of errors, omissions, unfair treatment or fraudulent behavior by our employees, clients, or counterparties, or other third parties.

Our adoption and use of artificial intelligence, including generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, and similar tools and technologies that collect, aggregate, analyze or generate data or other materials or content (collectively, “AI”), for limited internal use has increased our efficiency, and we expect to continue to adopt such tools as appropriate. In addition, we expect our third-party vendors and service providers to increasingly develop and incorporate AI into their product offerings faster than we are able to do so independently. There are significant and evolving risks involved in utilizing AI, and no assurance can be provided that our or our third party vendors’ or service providers’ use of AI will enhance our or our third party vendors’ or service providers’ products or services or produce the intended results. The adoption and incorporation of such AI tools can lead to concerns around safety and soundness, fair access to financial services, fair treatment of consumers, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Such risk can result from models being incorrectly or inadequately designed or trained, inadequate model testing or validation, narrow or limited human oversight, inadequate planning or due diligence, inappropriate or controversial data practices by developers or end-users, and other factors adversely affecting public opinion of AI and the acceptance of AI solutions. Further, generative AI has been known to, and may continue to, create biased, incomplete, inaccurate, misleading or poor-quality output or produce other discriminatory or unexpected results, errors, or inadequacies, any of which may not be easily detectable. AI solutions may also be adversely impacted by unforeseen defects, technical challenges, cyber-attacks, cybersecurity breaches, service outages or other similar incidents, or material performance issues. We have implemented an AI governance function and risk management framework that includes a risk assessment of internal and vendor AI solutions, due diligence, model validation, and controls. However, given the pace of rapid adoption of such tools by vendors and service providers, we may not be aware of the addition of AI solutions prior to such tools being introduced into our environment. Failure to adequately manage AI risks can result in erroneous results and decisions made by misinformation, unwanted forms of bias, unauthorized access to sensitive, confidential, proprietary or personal information, and violations of applicable laws and regulations, leading to operational inefficiencies, competitive harm, reputational harm, ethical challenges, legal liability, losses, fines, and other adverse impacts on our business and financial results. If we do not have sufficient rights to use the data or other material or content on which the AI tools we use rely, or to use the output of such AI tools, we also may incur liability through the violation of applicable laws and regulations, third-party intellectual property, privacy or other rights, or contracts to which we are a party. Further, our competitors or other third parties may incorporate AI into their business or operations more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively.

In addition, regulation of AI is rapidly evolving as legislatures and regulators are increasingly focused on these powerful emerging technologies. The technologies underlying AI and its uses are subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including intellectual property, data privacy and cybersecurity, consumer protection, competition, equal opportunity, and fair lending laws, and are expected to be subject to increased regulation and new laws or new applications of existing laws and regulations. AI is the subject of ongoing review by various U.S. governmental and regulatory agencies, and various U.S. states are applying, or are considering applying, existing laws and regulations to AI or are considering general legal frameworks for AI. We may not be able to anticipate how to respond to these rapidly evolving frameworks, and we may need to expend resources to adjust our operations or offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal frameworks are inconsistent across jurisdictions. Furthermore, because AI technology itself is highly complex and rapidly developing, it is not possible to predict all the legal, operational or technological risks that may arise relating to the use of AI. We expect our use of AI will require additional resources, including the incurrence of additional costs, to develop and maintain our products and services to minimize potentially harmful or unintended consequences, to comply with applicable and emerging laws and regulations, to maintain or extend our competitive position, and to address any ethical, reputational, technical, operational, legal, competitive or regulatory issues which may arise as a result of any of the foregoing.

Cybersecurity risks for banking organizations have significantly increased in recent years, in part because of the proliferation of new technologies and the use of the internet and telecommunications technologies to conduct financial transactions. For example, cybersecurity risks may increase in the future as we continue to increase our mobile payment and other internet-based product offerings and expand our internal usage of web-based products and applications and as AI tools are increasingly used for purposes of cyber-attacks, information security breaches, and other similar incidents, including for targeted social engineering attacks. In addition, cybersecurity risks have significantly increased in recent years in part due to the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, hostile foreign governments, disgruntled employees, service providers, activists and other external parties, including those involved in corporate espionage. Even the most advanced internal control environment may be vulnerable to compromise. For example, targeted social engineering attacks and “spear phishing” attacks are becoming more sophisticated and are extremely difficult to prevent. In such an attack, an attacker will attempt to fraudulently induce colleagues, customers or other users of our systems to disclose sensitive information to gain access to its data or that of its clients. Persistent attackers may succeed in penetrating defenses given enough resources, time, and motive. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently and may not be recognized until launched or until well after a breach has occurred.

● the impact of technological changes, including artificial intelligence and online and mobile banking, on our business model, and that we may have fewer resources than many competitors to invest in technological improvements;

● the adoption of artificial intelligence tools by us and our third-party vendors and service providers;

Technological changes, including artificial intelligence and online and mobile banking, have the potential of disrupting our business model, and we may have fewer resources than many competitors to invest in technological improvements.

The financial services industry continues to undergo rapid technological changes with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services, including artificial intelligence tools to enhance efficiencies, as well as mobile and online banking services. Changes in customer behaviors have increased the need to offer these options to our customers. The past several years accelerated technological change as our employees and the customers and communities to which we provide products and services converted to remote work, shopping and banking as we experienced supply chain interruptions.

In addition to serving clients better, investments in, and the effective use of, technology, including artificial intelligence, may increase efficiency and may enable financial institutions to reduce costs. Although we are making focused investments in automation and other technology solutions to improve both our customer facing and back-office services and have strategically introduced artificial intelligence tools for internal efficiencies, investments may not be sufficient or provide the anticipated benefits or desired return. We can make no assurance that investments will be sufficient to increase efficiencies, retain existing customers or attract new customers in the future.

We are exposed to many types of operational risk, including the risk of fraud by third parties, customers and employees, clerical recordkeeping errors and transactional errors. Like the financial services industry overall, we have seen an increase in fraudulent attempts on accounts, online transactions, and debit cards during 2023, and these attempts may continue to accelerate with the increased use of artificial intelligence to produce sophisticated malware, phishing schemes, and other fraudulent activities. While (i) our procedures are designed to follow customary, industry-specific security precautions, (ii) we provide employees with ongoing training, table-top exercises and regular communications and guidance to combat fraud, and (iii) we have adopted additional cybersecurity tools and solutions designed to identify fraudulent attempts, our efforts might not be successful in mitigating or reducing fraudulent attempts resulting in financial losses, increased litigation risk and reputational harm.

The adoption of artificial intelligence tools by us and our third-party vendors and service providers may increase the risk of errors, omissions, unfair treatment or fraudulent behavior by our employees, clients, or counterparties, or other third parties.

Our adoption of artificial intelligence, including generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, and similar tools and technologies that collect, aggregate, analyze or generate data or other materials or content (collectively, “AI”), for limited internal use has increased our efficiency, and we expect to continue to adopt such tools as appropriate. In addition, we expect our third-party vendors and service providers to increasingly develop and incorporate AI into their product offerings faster than we are able to do so independently. There are significant risks involved in utilizing AI and no assurance can be provided that our or our third-party vendors’ or service providers’ use of AI will enhance our or our third-party vendors’ or service providers’ products or services or produce the intended results. The adoption and incorporation of such tools can lead to concerns around safety and soundness, fair access to financial services, fair treatment of consumers, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Such risk can result from models being poorly designed or faulty data being used, inadequate model testing or validation, narrow or limited human oversight, inadequate planning or due diligence, inappropriate or controversial data practices by developers or end-users, and other factors adversely affecting public opinion of AI and the acceptance of AI solutions. We have implemented an AI governance function and risk management framework that includes a risk assessment of internal and vendor AI solutions, due diligence, model validation, and controls. However, given the pace of rapid adoption of such tools by vendors and service providers, we may not be aware of the addition of AI solutions prior to such tools being introduced into our environment. Failure to adequately manage AI risks can result in erroneous results and decisions made by misinformation, unwanted forms of bias, unauthorized access to sensitive, confidential, proprietary or personal information, and violations of applicable laws and regulations, leading to operational inefficiencies, competitive harm, reputational harm, ethical challenges, legal liability, losses, fines, and other adverse impacts on our business and financial results. If we do not have sufficient rights to use the data or other material or content on which the AI tools we use rely, or to use the output of such AI tools, we also may incur liability through the violation of applicable laws and regulations, third-party intellectual property, privacy or other rights, or contracts to which we are a party.

In addition, regulation of AI is rapidly evolving as legislators and regulators are increasingly focused on these powerful emerging technologies. The technologies underlying AI and its uses are subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including intellectual property, data privacy and cybersecurity, consumer protection, competition, equal opportunity, and fair lending laws, and are expected to be subject to increased regulation and new laws or new applications of existing laws and regulations. AI is the subject of ongoing review by various U.S. governmental and regulatory agencies, and various U.S. states are applying, or are considering applying, existing laws and regulations to AI or are considering general legal frameworks for AI. We may not be able to anticipate how to respond to these rapidly evolving frameworks, and we may need to expend resources to adjust our operations or offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal frameworks are inconsistent across jurisdictions. Furthermore, because AI technology itself is highly complex and rapidly developing, it is not possible to predict all of the legal, operational or technological risks that may arise relating to the use of AI.

Cybersecurity risks for banking organizations have significantly increased in recent years, in part because of the proliferation of new technologies and the use of the internet and telecommunications technologies to conduct financial transactions. For example, cybersecurity risks may increase in the future as we continue to increase our mobile payment and other internet-based product offerings and expand our internal usage of web-based products and applications and as artificial intelligence tools are increasingly used for purposes of cyber-attacks, information security breaches, and other similar incidents, including for targeted social engineering attacks. In addition, cybersecurity risks have significantly increased in recent years in part due to the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, hostile foreign governments, disgruntled employees, service providers, activists and other external parties, including those involved in corporate espionage. Even the most advanced internal control environment may be vulnerable to compromise. For example, targeted social engineering attacks and “spear phishing” attacks are becoming more sophisticated and are extremely difficult to prevent. In such an attack, an attacker will attempt to fraudulently induce colleagues, customers or other users of our systems to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to its data or that of its clients. Persistent attackers may succeed in penetrating defenses given enough resources, time, and motive. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently and may not be recognized until launched or until well after a breach has occurred.