The Future of Banking Shifts From Transactional to Conversational

At the Temenos Community Forum (TCF) 2026, Sairam Rangachari from Temenos discussed the evolving landscape of banking technology, outlining a clear path from foundational trust to modernisation and, ultimately, transcendence. Rangachari emphasised that as fintech continues to mature, banks must meet their customers where they are, offering flexible paths to modernisation, whether through a full core replacement or by adopting composable modules and point solutions for specific systems like payments.

A major focus of the discussion was the integration of AI, which Rangachari views as the next critical step for banking software. He highlighted two primary areas of innovation: conversational interfaces and agentic AI. Rangachari explained that as consumers grow accustomed to conversational AI in their daily lives, they will naturally expect the same intuitive, language-based interaction from their banks. This shift moves banking from a transactional, “after the fact” relationship to a proactive, embedded service that anticipates and helps fulfil personal financial goals.

Rangachari introduced Temenos’ new Conversational Studio, a product designed to accelerate the development of these end-to-end banking experiences. By allowing banks to provide context and desired outcomes through simple conversation, the platform can handle the underlying coding and architecture, significantly shortening development timelines from months to mere days.

Looking ahead, Rangachari described agentic banking as the future, where banks are equipped to interact with the personalised AI advisors that customers will soon carry. This transformation extends to the employee experience as well, where staff will use conversational tools to perform complex tasks, like generating reports or pulling data across multiple systems, without the need for technical SQL queries. Ultimately, Temenos painted a picture of a more efficient, personalised, and intuitive banking future for both employees and end customers.