Tamara Kostova

expert panel

AI is changing what customers expect from their banks and challenging long-held assumptions about what loyalty really means. Members of the FinTech Think Tank explain why retention, product ownership and longevity are no longer enough—and how banks can use AI to deliver more relevant guidance, stronger service and greater trust.Customers now have more ways to find financial information, compare providers and manage their money, raising the stakes for banks competing to build lasting relationships. As technology gives them more choice and access to personalized financial guidance, traditional advantages such as familiarity, reputation and the inconvenience of switching may carry less weight than they once did.Members of the Senior Executive FinTech Think Tank bring experience across banking, payments, financial technology, investing and AI to this evolving challenge. Their perspectives point to a common imperative: Banks can use AI to make interactions faster and more personalized, but lasting customer relationships will depend on whether the technology delivers genuine value, earns trust and helps customers make better financial decisions.Recent industry research underscores the urgency. McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2025 reports that consumers have become more digital and less loyal as AI, aggregators and other intermediaries reshape how they choose financial providers. Banks therefore face a higher standard, with growing pressure to compete not simply on products, but on the value they provide throughout the customer relationship.

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Fintech is expanding financial inclusion by reducing barriers to access and making financial services more responsive to users' needs. Members of the Senior Executive FinTech Think Tank share how technology, AI and digital payments can reach underserved communities and build greater trust.Financial inclusion is moving beyond the question of whether consumers and businesses can open an account. Increasingly, the bigger question is whether financial products are affordable, understandable and designed around the people expected to use them.The opportunity remains significant. While account ownership has continued to rise globally, gaps persist among people facing barriers related to income, geography, digital access, financial literacy and other circumstances. Expanding access, therefore, requires more than putting traditional financial services online.Members of the Senior Executive FinTech Think Tank bring a practitioner perspective to this challenge, examining how payment technology, digital financial services and AI can expand access without creating new barriers. Their insights point to a common principle: Financial inclusion is not achieved simply by digitizing financial services. It requires designing those services so more people can understand, trust and use them.

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As banks and fintechs blur into one financial ecosystem, consumers are left deciding whom to trust with their money and their data. Members of the Senior Executive FinTech Think Tank explain why the winners of the next five years will be the institutions that treat trust, not technology, as their core product.The line between traditional banking and fintech has all but disappeared. Banks now embed AI-driven tools once associated with scrappy startups, while fintechs increasingly offer the deposit accounts, lending products and compliance infrastructure once reserved for chartered banks. The result is a financial ecosystem where consumers can no longer tell, at a glance, who is actually holding their money or making decisions about their financial lives.That blurring raises the stakes for trust. Members of the Senior Executive FinTech Think Tank, a curated group of financial technology leaders and advisors, agree that winning and keeping consumer trust over the next five years will require more than faster apps or smarter algorithms. It will demand transparency, consistency and a demonstrated commitment to acting in the customer's best interest.Their perspectives, drawn from decades of experience building products and companies across banking, payments and wealth technology, offer a practical roadmap for leaders navigating this shift.This piece builds on Senior Executive's recent look at where AI is and isn't earning trust in fintech, zooming out from specific AI use cases to the broader question of what it takes to win consumer trust as banking and fintech become one category.

expert panel

AI is already reshaping fraud prevention, account monitoring and personal finance tools, but fintech leaders say the industry is still falling short on transparency and on truly understanding the people behind the transactions. Members of the Senior Executive FinTech Think Tank break down where the technology is delivering real value, where it's falling short and what leaders should do next.Financial institutions have poured billions into artificial intelligence over the past two years, and the payoff is starting to show. Fraud detection is sharper, customer service is faster and personalization has moved well past generic marketing emails. Yet those gains have exposed a deeper challenge: an IDC study commissioned by Atlanta-based Sage found that 71% of finance leaders would reject an AI tool that was 99% accurate if it couldn't explain its answers. More than half would pay a premium for AI that shows its work. For every leap forward, executives are discovering how much further the industry has to go when it comes to transparency, customer trust and understanding people rather than simply transaction histories.To make sense of where AI is truly moving the needle in financial services, and where the industry keeps stumbling, we turned to members of the Senior Executive FinTech Think Tank, a curated group of financial technology leaders and advisors. Their answers point to a pattern: the easy wins are technical, and the harder, more valuable work is human.Here, they share where they see AI creating meaningful change today, and where they believe the industry is still getting it wrong.