Financial institutions are entering 2026 with technology embedded at the core of their business models, with banking and technology becoming increasingly indistinguishable. Executives such as Kris Brewster at LHV Bank foresee Artificial Intelligence customer service becoming mainstream, shifting from back-end optimisation to front-end orchestration and enabling hyper-personalised support, regulated financial advice and autonomous money management. Industry leaders note that around 80 per cent of routine queries are seen as suitable for rapid resolution by Artificial Intelligence, freeing specialist staff to handle complex cases, while customers increasingly expect fully digital, low-friction journeys across banking and insurance. At the same time, cyber risk is escalating, with ISACA reporting that 64 per cent of professionals are prioritising resilience and experts warning that Artificial Intelligence-generated code and attack ideas will make hacking more accessible, demanding an “army” of Artificial Intelligence-ready cyber professionals and tighter third-party oversight.
Digital assets and stablecoins are expected to move further into the financial mainstream in 2026 as regulatory clarity improves and traditional institutions deepen their involvement. ClearBank’s Sean Forward says institutional adoption will accelerate, with forecasts that stablecoin supply is projected to double, hitting $500 billion by the end of the year and potentially reaching $2 trillion by 2030 according to forecasts by JP Morgan, supported by measures such as the US GENIUS Act and Hong Kong’s 100 reserve backing requirement. Commentators predict that sovereigns may begin holding bitcoin reserves even as bitcoin gradually loses prominence in favour of more regulated models, while stablecoins could account for a growing share of retail payments in e-commerce and remittances and already represent 15 to 20 per cent of transactions in some industries. Asset tokenisation pilots, programmable securities and moves by players such as Towerbank and NASDAQ point to a future where banks must operate across traditional rails and tokenised ecosystems, dealing with multi-rail reconciliation, tax and real time settlement as new regulations in the US, EU and UK take effect.
Quantum computing risk is moving from theoretical to practical planning, with ClearBank’s Bernie Wright warning that while full commercial capability may be five to 20 years away, major cloud providers and nation states could have early solutions within the next decade, and that data harvesting for “decrypt later” attacks will accelerate in 2026. Legal and compliance leaders such as Symphony’s Corinna Mitchell highlight expert warnings that quantum computers could break end-to-end encryption as early as 2030, making 2026 a pivotal year for guidance and preparatory work to protect the financial system from disruption. In parallel, agentic Artificial Intelligence is tipped as a transformative force across operations, cyber defence and financial crime compliance. Former Volksbank chief executive Martijn Gribnau argues that using agentic Artificial Intelligence “in every way” will be a game changer, including near 100 per cent automation of account and record maintenance, while Capgemini’s Som Sarma Royyuru says agentic Artificial Intelligence will deliver continuous monitoring, real-time pattern recognition and adaptive fraud controls that are quickly becoming baseline expectations, with regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority recognising its benefits for AML and fraud prevention.
Security leaders caution that the same agentic Artificial Intelligence capabilities will be weaponised by attackers, who will use autonomous tools to scan networks, craft tailored intrusions and run sophisticated phishing with highly personalised content, creating a smaller margin for human error. Technology providers like Microsoft and Google are racing to deploy Artificial Intelligence agents to automate repetitive work, but experts such as Bernie Wright say governance gaps could turn those agents into new attack entry points if oversight lags behind adoption. Reasoning models capable of document-to-document decision making are pushing automation into previously human-dominated fields such as asset management, accounting, insurance and legal services, where they can interpret complex, unstructured information. Consultants like Hiten Patel at Oliver Wyman describe agentic Artificial Intelligence as a catalyst for re-shaping workflows and cutting costs across organisational silos, although data access, privacy, regulation, talent and scaling challenges are seen as persistent bottlenecks even as institutions increasingly seek strategic partnerships with Artificial Intelligence providers and sharpen their focus on clear returns on investment.
The human side of Artificial Intelligence adoption features prominently in predictions for 2026, with NatWest Boxed’s Andy Mason arguing that people, not models, will be the real competitive advantage. Organisations making the most progress are rolling out Artificial Intelligence-ready workforce programmes, formal literacy training and clear guidelines on responsible use, helping staff see Artificial Intelligence as an augmentation tool rather than a replacement. Roles for frontline and operations teams are expected to evolve toward Artificial Intelligence quality assurance, where employees validate outputs, detect failure patterns and feed insights into continuous improvement within “human in the loop” frameworks. Yet BIAN’s Hans Tesselaar warns that many banks remain stuck in siloed pilots despite the Artificial Intelligence hype, even as neobanks raise the bar with seamless, hyper-personalised services that challenge the loyalty and reputations of traditional players. Agentic commerce, where Artificial Intelligence systems autonomously execute purchases, is advancing, and Mastercard’s Brice van de Walle says 2026 will bring both expansion and stronger guardrails, with industry focus on authenticating agents, reducing fraud and capturing user intent when Artificial Intelligence-driven transactions misfire, underlining that commerce can be automated but trust cannot.
Regulatory and infrastructure themes also loom large over the coming year. PA Consulting’s Adam Stringer expects 2026 to be the year big technology providers fall directly under the Financial Conduct Authority’s oversight as critical third parties, following a period in 2025 that some observers called “the year of the hyperscaler outage” after numerous high-profile cloud incidents and cyberattacks. Stringer notes that in early 2025, UK regulators gained new powers to oversee critical third-party providers to financial services, but that the decisive step will be HM Treasury designating which firms are captured, a move that could help plug systemic weaknesses in digital infrastructure and financial services. At the same time, banks are pushing legacy system modernisation from an operational preference to a strategic imperative, with Accenture’s Tom Merry arguing that while historical cores once powered growth and stability, they are now costly, inflexible and misaligned with today’s regulatory and data demands. Institutions are therefore turning to staged, hybrid and composable architectures that integrate modern components while maintaining stability, relying on agentic and generative Artificial Intelligence to accelerate software development, testing and documentation so they can clear technology backlogs and progressively decommission outdated systems without a risky “big bang” migration.
