- Backbase launched Conversational Banking, an agentic AI solution that allows banks to move beyond answering customer questions to executing banking tasks within predefined permissions and controls.
- More than 10 banks are already using the solution, with one major South African bank increasing self-service containment from 20% to 70% across 22 million customer interactions.
- The launch highlights a broader shift toward AI-powered execution in banking, raising questions about whether banks will prioritize cost savings or leverage AI to deliver more personalized customer experiences.
Engagement banking solutions provider Backbase is launching Conversational Banking this week to bring agentic AI into the customer and employee experiences.
The launch comes 18 months after Backbase unveiled its new AI-powered banking platform that sought to improve customer engagement with AI-powered self-service and real-time support. Conversational Banking, which runs on Backbase’s AI-native Banking OS, takes that a step further by allowing the AI agent to actually execute appropriate banking actions on the behalf of consumers and employees, given that they fall within pre-defined permissions, policies, and approvals as set by the bank.
The Conversational Banking tool works alongside existing digital banking stacks and allows customers to use natural language prompts to have their lost payment card blocked and replaced, check a payment, or progress a service request. By leveraging customer context, permissions, and connected banking systems, AI agents can carry out specific, permitted tasks on customers’ behalf. For requests that require further investigation or human judgment, employees can pick up where the agent left off by examining an overview of the work the agent has already completed.
“Digital banking put the bank in the customer’s pocket. The next step is to let customers say what they need done and have the bank’s agents act on it intelligently,” said Backbase Founder and CEO Jouk Pleiter. “That future has now arrived early: one where agents do the work, and banks stay in control. It completely changes both the customer experience and the economics of serving them.”
Backbase anticipates that by allowing AI agents to carry out tasks on behalf of consumers and employees, banks can scale and increase their service capacity. In fact, according to a report by McKinsey & Company, agentic AI could cut banks’ operating costs by 15% to 20%, as the automation frees up employee time for advice, exceptions, and complex needs.
Currently, 10+ banks have already started using Backbase’s new Conversational Banking and have reported positive feedback. One of the four largest South African banks has so far supported 22 million customer interactions, while improving self-service containment from 20% to 70%.
Backbase’s launch shows that banks are beginning to shift from AI-powered tools to AI-powered execution. Chatbots have historically been limited to providing information and directing customers to the appropriate resources. By handing tasks over to agentic AI, banks can automate the steps required to resolve customer requests. This transforms AI from a customer service tool into a functional layer of the banking experience. With its background in compliance, Backbase is in a great position to add reliable governance and permissions into the agentic process, addressing one of the key hurdles preventing banks from putting agentic AI into production.
The bigger question, however, is whether banks will use these agentic capabilities primarily to reduce operating costs or to meaningfully improve the customer experience. Automating routine service requests can certainly improve efficiency, but the longer-term opportunity may lie in using AI to deliver more proactive, personalized banking services.
Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash