For the last decade, the big threat in banking was the slick neobank with a better app. That fight is over. The next one emerging is far more brutal.

 

I read Michael Abbott’s new analysis of banking trends in Forbes, and he coined a term that should be a wake-up call for every bank CEO: the Unconstrained Bank.

 

This isn’t a bank with a better app. This is a bank where AI agents are the new front door. Where intelligent, automated systems orchestrate everything from KYC to risk decisions to personalised financial advice, all without the traditional capacity constraints.

 

Customers not logging in, instead, having a conversation with an AI that seamlessly meets them wherever they are.

 

The problem? Most banks are trying to build this future on a foundation of crumbling, decades-old technology. They’re building AI wrappers on to a legacy core that can not serve AI to its fullest.

 

This is the high cost of low-cost thinking. Deferring core modernisation was a survivable choice for years. In the era of the Unconstrained Bank, it’s a fatal one.

 

We at Mind IT Systems are seeing this firsthand. The most forward-thinking financial institutions we work with aren’t just asking for an AI strategy. They’re asking how to re-architect their core systems so they can actually execute one.

 

They understand that you can’t build an AI-native future on a pre-digital foundation.

 

In your experience, irrespective of domain, which big pieces of technical debt have held organisations back from true AI adoption?

Shailendra Gupta
(Co-Founder and CEO of Mind IT Systems)

 

Shailendra is Co-Founder and CEO of Mind IT Systems and is responsible for strategy and business relations.

With around two decades of experience in getting things done in marketing, sales, strategy, delivery, or technology, he has a successful track record of leading startups and mid-size companies and being a prime contributor to stakeholder management, growth, and value creation. A thought leader in the geo-social space, he is highly respected for realizing new paradigms in marketing, solutions, and approaches.