Bank of Cyprus Debuts DANAI: The Island's First AI Banking Assistant for Instant Support

Bank of Cyprus has launched DANAI, the first AI banking assistant in Cyprus, integrated directly into its mobile application. This deployment signals a shift toward agentic AI in the Mediterranean banking sector, providing 24/7 natural language support in Greek and English to simplify customer interactions and reduce reliance on manual menu navigation.

What was announced

The Bank of Cyprus has introduced DANAI, an artificial intelligence assistant designed to provide instant answers to everyday banking questions. Accessible from the home screen of the bank’s mobile app, the service operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The assistant is built to handle queries in natural language, allowing users to bypass traditional navigation menus to find specific banking information.

Developed in partnership with the digital engineering firm Avenga, the assistant currently supports both Greek and English. The launch is positioned as an initial step into agentic artificial intelligence, a subset of AI where systems are designed to carry out tasks with a higher degree of autonomy than standard chatbots. While the current iteration focuses on responding to common banking queries, the bank has indicated that the service will undergo regular improvements based on customer needs.

The partnership with Avenga focused on creating a service that is intuitive and personal. For the Bank of Cyprus, this technology investment is part of a broader strategy to modernize its digital channels and make banking services more accessible to its customer base. The assistant is now live for all users of the bank’s mobile application, marking the first time such a tool has been deployed by a domestic institution in the Cypriot market.

"Today’s announcement places us among the pioneers in the adoption of Agentic AI, and this is only the first step."

George Koushis, Chief Technology and Operations Officer at Bank of Cyprus

The companies involved

The Bank of Cyprus is the leading banking and financial services group in Cyprus. The institution has focused its recent corporate strategy on digital transformation, aiming to modernize legacy processes through significant investments in technology. It operates as the primary domestic lender, maintaining a dominant position in the island's retail and corporate banking sectors.

Avenga is an AI-focused digital engineering and consulting company that operates on a global scale with thousands of technology professionals. The firm specializes in modernizing legacy systems, developing digital products, and implementing cloud services. In the financial sector, Avenga provides expertise in core banking modernization, conversational and agentic AI, and intelligent automation. The company works with various financial institutions to create data-driven customer experiences and streamline digital channels. Its involvement in the DANAI project highlights its role as a technical partner for traditional banks looking to integrate advanced AI capabilities into their existing mobile infrastructure.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously tracked Avenga’s work in the core banking and digital transformation space. In June 2025, the publication reported on how Mambu and Avenga Power Marginalen Bank’s Core Banking Transformation With Successful Cloud Migration. That project demonstrated Avenga’s capability in handling complex cloud migrations and core system overhauls for European financial institutions. The collaboration with Marginalen Bank focused on moving core operations to the cloud to increase agility, a theme that continues with the Bank of Cyprus’s push into autonomous AI agents.

What this means

The move from basic chatbots to "agentic" AI marks a significant evolution in how regional banks compete with global neobanks. By integrating natural language processing into the home screen, Bank of Cyprus is putting pressure on other Mediterranean lenders to move beyond static FAQ pages and manual menus. The industry is currently grappling with the transition from informative AI—which merely answers questions—to performative AI that can autonomously execute transactions. This launch raises the bar for customer expectations in smaller markets, suggesting that sophisticated AI implementation is no longer the exclusive domain of Tier 1 global banks or specialized fintech startups.