i2c Inc., a global financial technology innovator, today announced the release of “The Agentic AI Readiness Report: Architecture, Workflows and the Road to Personalization.” The new research, conducted by American Banker in collaboration with i2c, reveals where financial services professionals see the greatest opportunity to deploy agentic AI across the customer journey, what is holding back adoption, and what it will take to close the gap between personalization ambition and results.
The report arrives as agentic AI emerges as one of the defining themes at Money20/20 USA 2026, highlighting the industry’s shift toward more intelligent, autonomous technologies that can enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and unlock new opportunities.
As agentic AI moves from pilot to production, the findings point to a clear priority: getting the underlying technology and controls right, so institutions can expand deployments and deliver personalization across their customer base. Asked what matters most to successfully scaling agentic AI, respondents named data quality and accessibility (25%) first, followed by governance and risk controls (18%). Together with modern infrastructure (9%), these foundational factors account for more than half of responses, outweighing AI models and tools (16%).
The report also suggests that rethinking workflows before automating them could unlock bigger gains, and that workflows with governance built in through rules and logic lay firmer groundwork for trusted systems that produce better customer experiences.
“The race in agentic AI will be won by those with the architecture, data, and workflows to put intelligence into action,” said Amir Wain, Founder and CEO of i2c. “Agentic AI creates an opportunity to rethink how financial services work, not simply automate what exists today. That’s why we built PowerOne as a unified platform, giving institutions a next-gen foundation to redesign workflows, remove friction and turn AI ambition into meaningful customer outcomes.”
Key findings from the research include:
- Agentic AI is on the institutional roadmap: Nine in 10 respondents are making agentic AI a strategic priority, but only 37% are expanding agentic AI across multiple functions. Roughly three in four say their institutions are exploring or piloting customer-facing AI agents, and 61% expect AI agents to be involved in at least a quarter of customer interactions by 2028.
- Phased adoption is the preference: More than six in 10 respondents favor piloting a small number of high-value use cases or expanding into additional functions after proving value.
- Clear trends emerge in specific use cases: Fraud alerts, customer service, and payments appear as the top focus areas for both planned investment and perceived opportunity over the next two years.
- Personalization ambition outpaces results: 69% of respondents call personalization a critical or high priority for growth, but only 26% of those exploring or using customer-facing AI agents cite it as an achieved or expected outcome.
- The constraint shifts as institutions mature: Among institutions exploring customer-facing AI agents, 43% say legacy systems limit personalization, compared with just 16% of active deployers. Talent and resource gaps also recede with experience, while regulatory concerns rise from 24% among non-users to 47% among active deployers.
“The industry has largely made up its mind about agentic AI. The open question now is execution,” said Michael Moeser, Senior Content Strategist at American Banker. “Moving from pilot to production won’t come down to having the most sophisticated model. It will come down to readiness: the data, governance, and workflows that let institutions deliver the personalized experiences customers expect.”
The full report is available for complimentary download at https://innovate.i2cinc.com/the-agentic-ai-readiness-report.html.
Register here to attend a live webinar, “Are you still ‘piloting’ agentic AI? Your competitors aren’t,” on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET. Wain and Moeser will walk through the full report findings and discuss what separates financial institutions building lasting advantage from those still experimenting.
The research is based on an American Banker survey of 160 qualified professionals at banks, credit unions, online-only bank units, neobanks, and payments processors, core providers, facilitators, or networks, each involved in decisions related to automation, AI, or digital transformation at their institution. The survey was conducted online from July 1 to Aug. 2, 2026.
About i2c Inc.
An award-winning global financial technology innovator powering credit, debit, prepaid, core banking, and money movement solutions, i2c unifies banking and payments on its proprietary PowerOne platform, transforming product personalization with a customer-centric architecture and accelerating speed-to-market with composable building-block solutions. Financial institutions and fintechs globally trust i2c to help them quickly and efficiently configure and scale differentiated financial offerings in an evolving, competitive market. Powered by innovation and driven by trust for more than 25 years, i2c blends modern ingenuity with expert reliability to supercharge exceptional banking and payments experiences for millions of users and billions of transactions worldwide.
For more information, visit i2cinc.com and follow us on LinkedIn at @i2cinc.
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