As financial institutions race to adopt artificial intelligence, many are discovering that implementing AI is easier than generating meaningful results from it. In 2026, AI is no longer just a playground; organizations are facing growing pressure to demonstrate ROI, maintain regulatory compliance, and manage rising technology costs. How can firms separate successful AI deployments from those that fall short?
At FinovateFall 2026 in New York, Finovate Research Analyst David Penn sat down with Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta, and Merlin Bise, the company’s CTO, to discuss the challenges financial institutions face when implementing AI. In their conversation, Solis and Bise explain why some organizations are abandoning their AI initiatives, how companies can avoid common deployment mistakes, and why involving employees across IT, compliance, and other departments is essential to success. They also discuss the importance of balancing automation with human expertise and introduce Inbenta’s Encore platform.
“It’s amazing how the pressure from AI caused so many people to basically get away of all the disciplines that they normally use, right, to buy products and services or look at vendors, and they threw it out the window because of that pressure,” said Solis. “We all thought that AI was a magic wand. You just waved, and we’re finding out it’s not,” she added.
Melissa Solis is CEO of Inbenta, bringing more than 30 years of leadership experience in insurance and technology. She previously co-founded GIACT Systems, a provider of fraud prevention and risk management technology, and served as its CEO until the company’s acquisition by Refinitiv, part of the London Stock Exchange Group, in 2020. Under her leadership, GIACT grew to serve more than 1,000 companies, including Fortune 500 firms.
Merlin Bise is CTO of Inbenta, where he oversees IT infrastructure and new product development, including the expansion of the company’s conversational AI capabilities. Bise brings more than 20 years of technology leadership experience, with expertise in fraud prevention, artificial intelligence, and optical character recognition. He also co-founded GIACT Systems, where he led technology development and implementations for major enterprise customers.
Founded in 2005, Inbenta is an enterprise AI company that helps organizations automate customer interactions, improve customer experiences, and streamline business operations. Its Encore platform combines AI orchestration, customer experience tools, and live agent assistance to help businesses deploy and manage AI solutions with an emphasis on governance, accuracy, and measurable results. Headquartered in Allen, Texas, Inbenta serves more than 1,000 companies worldwide, supporting interactions in more than 90 languages.