Banking and financial services are entering one of the most profound shifts in their history. Digital transformation is no longer the benchmark. Autonomy, intelligence, trust and hyper-personalization are emerging as the forces that will distinguish the industry’s leaders from the rest. As AI matures, financial institutions are redesigning their operating models, decisioning engines, customer experiences and compliance frameworks.
In a new series from HCLTech called FutureScape Financial Services: Predictions that Power Progress, four experts from HCLTech — Payal Aggarwal, Shyamala Chandrasekar, Ranjita Chakraborty and Vandana Bhinde — offer insights into what 2026 will look like across global capability centers (GCCs), autonomous banking, intelligent operations and FinTech 4.0.
AI-powered Global Capability Centers take the lead
“The future isn’t coming. It’s here,” says Payal Aggarwal, Head of GCC – Financial Services at HCLTech, emphasizing that GCCs are no longer peripheral delivery hubs. Instead, they are becoming the “AI-powered operating cores” of financial services enterprises.
Today, GCCs are driving innovation, efficiency and transformation, rapidly designing and scaling autonomous operations. Their rise is unmistakable:
- BFSI GCCs now account for 44% of India’s leasing activity, up sharply from 8% in 2022
- Global GCC spending is projected to exceed $300 billion by 2032
Aggarwal outlines three major shifts that define the next decade of GCCs:
1. AI-intrinsic operating models
From collaboration to governance, GCCs will embed AI into every workflow, while human-AI teaming will become the norm, built on explainability, traceability and ethical behavior. According to Aggarwal, “Productivity gains will be exponential, not incremental.” This shift positions GCCs as an organization's most strategic intelligence engines.
2. Talent upskilling and AI-native capabilities
While service transformation has progressed, Aggarwal believes the future lies in business transformation enabled by scalable AI use cases and enterprise-wide adoption. Upskilling is essential: infusing AI-native skills and deep domain expertise will create new competitive advantages. She notes that enterprises that “master the intersection of high-caliber talent and enterprise-grade AI technology will create a competitive edge.”
3. Agentic AI at center stage
“Business processes will be reimagined through composable platforms, intelligent workflows, automation and Agentic AI,” says Aggarwal. This marks a decisive move from traditional automation to autonomous AI agents, with promising early results across fraud detection, insider trading surveillance, mortgage processing and business banking.
Her conclusion is clear: AI-driven GCCs will define the competitive frontier. “The future of GCCs is intelligent, autonomous and transformational. And we’re just getting started.”
Autonomous banking becomes the new baseline
“What happens when banking stops being digital and starts being autonomous?” asks Shyamala Chandrasekar, Solutions Principal, Autonomous Financial Services at HCLTech. By 2026, she argues, autonomy will no longer be an innovation; it will be the baseline for financial institutions.
Drawing from market signals and HCLTech’s own research into payments and automation, Chandrasekar outlines three transformative trends that will define autonomous banking.
1. Autonomous customer journeys
Banking journeys will become “self-driving.” AI systems will automatically and intelligently manage:
- Onboarding and KYC
- Loan approvals and credit decisions
- Real-time financial advice
This shift progressively transfers manual effort from users to systems. Yet Chandrasekar emphasizes this is “not about elimination, but rather elevation of the role of humans.”
2. Real-time risk & compliance orchestration
Risk and compliance will become continuous, autonomous and predictive. Systems will:
- Monitor anomalies 24/7
- Predict risks
- Trigger preventive actions
- Reduce fraud and increase resilience
For Chandrasekar, this marks the end of lagging, reactive compliance. “This is compliance that runs 24/7. No lag. No blind spots.”
3. Autonomous decisioning and self-optimizing operations
Banks will evolve into self-improving enterprises as systems optimize workflows, reroute transactions, manage exceptions and enhance service levels independently. This represents the largest structural shift: a move from assisted automation to enterprise-level autonomy.
Her message for institutions approaching 2026: “The road to 2026 is clear: autonomous banking will redefine efficiency, risk and customer experience. And the banks that invest now…will set the pace for the next decade.”
Intelligence, integrity and impact redefine European banking
Europe is entering “a new era of banking,” says Ranjita Chakraborty, Global Client Partner, Financial Services at HCLTech. This era is defined not by technology, but by intelligent behavior. Systems must learn, decisions must adapt and institutions must earn trust daily. By 2026, she predicts, the divide will be clear: banks that automate tasks versus banks that elevate intelligence.
She outlines three forces reshaping Europe’s financial landscape:
1. The intelligent decisioning core
By 2026, the strongest banks will run on a single, unified decisioning engine that governs:
- Credit
- Fraud
- AML
- Payments
- Customer service
This “one core, real-time, explainable, regulator-ready” architecture will outperform fragmented setups. Chakraborty notes that with 99% of banks already using AI for core banking processes, the stakes are rising. As the enforcement of the EU AI Act intensifies, “fragmentation becomes a liability,” and banks that fail to consolidate intelligence “will drown in exceptions, errors and scrutiny.”
2. Real-time money, real-time trust
Instant payments (10 seconds, 24/7) will become standard across Europe in 2026. But speed alone is insufficient. “The fastest payments will mean nothing…unless the bank proves they are also the safest,” says Chakraborty. Instant payments compress risk windows and expose weak controls in real time, shifting the industry to an operating model that is:
- Always-on
- Always auditable
- Always explainable
Trust becomes measurable, with regulators and consumers assessing banks on resilience, uptime and fraud performance.
3. The human premium returns
Despite rising automation, human assurance will matter more. Younger customers, in particular, expect “digital fluency paired with emotional intelligence,” says Chakraborty. As AI handles “thousands of micro-decisions,” humans will anchor the moments that shape customer loyalty:
- Negotiation
- Recovery
- Financial support
- Complex advice
“The more intelligent the system, the more human the bank must become,” adds Chakraborty. Technology elevates trust; people seal it.
Her conclusion: “2026 is not about digital transformation. It’s about decision transformation, trust transformation and human transformation. Banks that master these three win the decade.”
FinTech 4.0: Agentic UX and hyper-personalization take hold
As we enter 2026, FinTech 4.0 is reshaping the experience layer of banking. According to Vandana Bhinde, Director Practice & Sales: Cards & Real-Time Payments at HCLTech, there is a “seismic shift in banking interactions towards hyper-personalized user experiences” that are made seamless and proactive by intelligent, context-aware systems.
While fully autonomous banking will take time, the shift from tool-based digital banking to decision-aware experiences is already underway. Bhinde identifies three meaningful shifts shaping this evolution:
1. The rise of the AI-assisted primary banker
The traditional primary banker role evolves into an AI-assisted primary agent. Customers will interact through SuperApp-like, omnichannel experiences supported by AI agents that:
- Navigate unified customer journeys
- Make intuitive, simple decisions
- Deliver proactive, context-aware services
However, Bhinde warns that customers will seek “value before engaging more deeply…so as not to lose control.” Trust and transparency will determine adoption.
2. Contextual hyper-personalization
Personalization moves from “right time” to right context, supported by:
- Intent detection from behavioral patterns
- Emotionally adaptive interfaces
- Tone- and sentiment-aware systems
This requires robust consent and governance to avoid intrusive or poorly timed engagements. Customers expect “non-intrusive yet genuine assistance,” such as:
- Instant card reissuance
- Event-based card limit adjustments
Done responsibly, this becomes a trust multiplier. Done poorly, it jeopardizes the institution’s credibility.
3. Predictive compliance gains momentum
Compliance teams will rely on intelligent systems to anticipate regulatory shifts, interpret their impact and highlight affected controls. Crucially, this will be to assist human experts, not replace them. Bhinde stresses that success depends on:
- Strong data foundations
- Clear human-in-the-loop models
- Consistent governance
- Treating AI as “an advisor with intelligence and accountability”
These capabilities allow banks and FinTechs to harness AI responsibly while unlocking new value.
The decade of autonomous intelligence in financial services
Across all four perspectives, one message is clear: 2026 marks the beginning of a new competitive era in financial services. GCCs are becoming AI-powered transformation engines. Autonomous banking is emerging as the operating norm. Decisioning intelligence and trust will define institutional strength in Europe. And customer experiences are shifting toward agentic, hyper-personalized interactions grounded in responsibility and contextual intelligence.
The financial institutions that lead the decade will be those that:
- Invest in AI-native talent and architecture
- Consolidate intelligence and decisioning
- Build trust through transparency, compliance and human-centered design
- Pursue autonomy not as a technology goal, but as an operating philosophy
In short, the future of financial services is intelligent, autonomous, trusted and deeply personalized. And while 2026 represents a major milestone, the transformation is only just beginning.
