How AI can support integrated banking ecosystems
By Jeremy Thomas (pictured), Regional Vice President of Sales for ANZ at Backbase
After a decade of digitisation, the banking sector is entering a new phase. It’s one defined not by technology or automation alone, but by cohesion.
As a result, the sector is currently facing the challenge of integration: creating unified digital ecosystems that bring together fragmented systems, channels, and customer experiences into a single, seamless whole.
For much of the past ten years, financial institutions have focused on building the basics of digital service by developing apps, enabling online transactions, and replacing manual processes.
These investments transformed customer access but also created a patchwork of technologies. Behind the sleek interfaces, many banks still run on legacy systems and siloed infrastructure that slows innovation, limits scalability and complicates compliance.
Key strategic imperatives
Now, as Artificial Intelligence (AI), data orchestration, and modular platforms mature, banks are seeking to dismantle those silos. The emerging model centres on four strategic imperatives: acquiring new customers efficiently, activating them quickly, expanding relationships through insight, and retaining loyalty through relevance and service quality. These are the new underpinnings of digital growth.
The push toward a unified banking architecture aims to simplify what has become increasingly complex. Many institutions operate dozens, even hundreds, of standalone systems – each addressing a specific function but rarely speaking to the others.
The result is duplication, inefficiency and – most critically – a fragmented view of the customer. The next generation of digital transformation focuses on replacing this sprawl with integrated platforms that can manage the entire customer lifecycle, from onboarding to advisory services, on one foundation.
Start at the front door
The transformation starts with the front door: onboarding and origination. For retail banks, these processes remain riddled with friction. Drop-off rates for new account applications still reach 60% in some markets, and automation rarely exceeds 70%.
The new approach uses end-to-end digital journeys that automate identity checks, credit assessment and compliance screening in real time. Instead of piecing together point solutions, banks are building reusable modules that can serve multiple products, (retail accounts, small business loans or credit applications) and cut costs and time to market.
Once customers are onboarded, the challenge shifts to activation or turning new accounts into active relationships. Here, technology meets behavioural insights and digital tools are being designed not just to deliver functionality, but to engage.
For example, family and household banking propositions are expanding the concept of shared accounts and controlled access, appealing to younger generations while promoting financial education. These experiences deepen relationships early and encourage lifelong engagement.
As customers grow, the focus moves to expansion and retention, and data and AI are at the core of this evolution. Intelligent orchestration systems can now identify moments when a customer might need advice, a loan top-up, or an investment opportunity.
In the past, such insights required manual review and scheduled check-ins. Today, AI analyses real-time activity and recommends next steps directly within a user’s mobile experience. For relationship managers, unified customer profiles provide a 360-degree view that allows for tailored, timely support.
Another frontier is human-assisted digital interaction. For years, the industry has sought to combine the empathy of human service with the efficiency of automation. That ambition is now being realised through conversational interfaces and AI-driven assistance that mimic natural dialogue.
Instead of navigating menus or calling hotlines, customers can resolve issues or approve payments as easily as replying to a message. For small business owners managing finances on the go, that simplicity translates directly into productivity.
Growing business benefits
Internally, the same intelligence is reshaping how staff work. Smart employee workspaces integrate communication, task management and analytics. AI co-pilots transcribe calls, summarise client histories and suggest next actions, helping relationship managers prioritise and personalise their engagement.
Wealth and private banking, too, are being redefined by this unified model. High-net-worth clients increasingly expect digital collaboration alongside personal service. Platforms now integrate portfolio management, performance analytics and secure communication, allowing clients and advisers to co-manage investments in real time.
AI can also flag market opportunities aligned with a client’s risk profile, prompting timely, personalised advice. It’s a shift from reactive service to proactive partnership.
A modular future
The unifying thread across all these developments is modularity: the ability to innovate progressively instead of overhauling everything at once. Rather than replacing legacy systems wholesale, banks can modernise incrementally, selecting priority areas for transformation and connecting new capabilities to existing infrastructure.
Open, extensible platforms also make it possible to integrate fintech partners and third-party solutions seamlessly, accelerating innovation while preserving stability.
What emerges is a fundamentally different operating model comprising one platform, one app, and multiple lines of business. Whether serving retail customers, small enterprises or institutional clients, banks can deliver a consistent experience, powered by shared data and reusable technology components. The result is not only operational efficiency but also strategic agility.
As competition intensifies and customer expectations climb, the banks that thrive will be those that can unify their digital landscape without losing the human touch.
