Over the next two to three years, artificial intelligence (AI) and data will drive the next phase of transformation in the banking industry, reshaping customer engagement, personalization and operations.

Additionally, embedded finance will continue bringing financial services directly into broader digital ecosystems, allowing customers to access financing, payments, and management tools seamlessly at the exact moment and place they are needed.

According to top executives at Mashreq, Emirates NBD, and Revolut, these shifts represent a fundamental change in how financial services companies operate. These experts shared their views and expectations for the future of banking in a new report produced by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) released in June 2026.

Improving customer support

Ambareen Musa, CEO of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Revolut, emphasized how AI is quickly becoming a fundamental part of how banking operates, noting that the technology’s impact extends across every aspect of the customer experience to make it more seamless, intuitive, and responsive.

Musa highlighted that Revolut is already witnessing these effects in action. Its AI-based chatbot handles 75% of customer inquiries, enabling faster response times and allowing the company to support its customers at scale while maintaining a high-quality experience.

Studies show that AI-enabled chatbots are enhancing user experience. Researchers at Harvard Business School analyzed a year’s worth of online chat conversations between a meal delivery company and its customers to determine how AI affects response times and customer service. They found that AI helped human agents respond to chats some 20% faster, with performance improvements even more pronounced among less experienced agents.

The telecommunications sector offers further evidence of this. According to international management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, telcos leveraging AI to enhance customer experience can see significant operational gains. Specific improvements include reducing average handling time by a factor of 1.5 to 2, improving first-time resolution rates, and cutting post-call work by 40% to 50%, all while elevating customer satisfaction.

Beyond efficiency, the financial implications are substantial. Customer service, which includes technical support, billing and account management, complaint resolution, and more, accounts for 7% to 11% of a telco’s operating expenses. Oliver Wyman estimates that AI adoption could drive a 30% to 40% reduction in these capital and operational expenditures. Overall, generative AI-powered digital agents are set to generate over US$2 trillion in value for the industry.

Contextual banking

Rohit Garg, Chief Digital Official and Group Head of Retail Products, Emirates NBD, highlighted the use of AI for hyper-personalization as one of the most significant opportunities, allowing banks to move beyond static segmentation toward real-time, individualized engagement.

In a market like the UAE, where customers are highly digitally engaged and increasingly expect proactive financial insights, the ability to anticipate needs and deliver contextual offers will be a key differentiator, Garg said.

Fernando Morillo, Group Head of Retail Banking at Mashreq, agreed, stating that the next phase of digital transformation will focus on making banking intelligent, predictive, and contextual. He emphasized how customers increasingly expect banks to simplify decision-making and help them manage their financial lives more effectively.

Revolut’s Musa reinforced these views, noting that personalization will be one of the most meaningful shifts as financial services will become increasingly tailored in real time, with insights and recommendations reflecting how customers earn, spend, and save.

Rising demand for contextual offers will also fuel embedded finance. This is because customers increasingly want access to financial services at the tap of a screen and at the exact moment such services are needed, Mashreq’s Morillo said.

For Emirates NBD’s Garg, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is emerging as a leader in embedded finance, with financial services being increasingly delivered within non-bank ecosystems, from retail to travel to government platforms.

“Banks are building API-driven, cloud-native capabilities to integrate seamlessly into these journeys,” Garg said. “For example, receiving a pre-approved financing offer directly within a merchant platform is no longer a future concept, it is already emerging as a standard expectation.”

Cyber risk and operational resilience

However, this interconnected ecosystem is creating new vulnerabilities, including cyber threats, technology failures, vendor outages, and AI-related risks. According to Mashreq’s Morillo, operational resilience will become an increasingly important competitive differentiator, and banks will need to combine innovation with the resilience, security, and trust that banking ultimately depends upon.

Historical data illustrate the significance of this issue. According to Statista, there were 1,828 cyber incidents targeting the financial sector globally in 2022, with cybercrime costs expected to total US$8.4 trillion that same year.

Hackers target countries in the GCC, namely the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait primarily due to their high Internet penetration rates and the region’s high standard of living. In this respect, a total of 3.72 million UAE consumers lost approximately AED 3.86 billion (US$1.05 billion) to cybercrime in 2017 from schemes including credit and debit card fraud, malware infection, ransomware, and identity theft, according to statistics from Norton.

Technology risks are another key concern. According to new research from Optro, 59% of the UAE organizations polled reported losses exceeding US$500,000 as a result of disruptions, including vendor outages, supply chain interruptions, IT and cloud service failures, and weather-related events.

The research identified third-party resilience as one of the most significant contributors to operational risk, with 82% of respondents reporting that a third-party outage or failure had caused significant disruption to their operations within the last two years. Among those organizations, 67% estimated the resulting business impact exceeded US$1 million.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Middle East, based on image by Who is Danny via Magnific