Why users expect more, and how AI-driven digital banking solutions deliver engagement and trust

When it comes to digital banking solutions, your members and customers aren’t stacking your digital banking experience up against the credit union or community bank down the street. They’re measuring you against the applications (apps) in their pocket, the ones that anticipate, personalize, and keep them engaged. And, if your digital banking experience doesn’t feel that relevant, it becomes forgettable. Instead of being one of the go-to apps pinned to the home screen, it risks being buried in a folder, out of sight and out of mind.

The new standard of service

Your current digital banking experience may deliver access and speed, but that’s only the baseline.

Your users want more than fast answers; they want to feel remembered and understood. They don’t want to repeat their story every time they switch channels. They don’t want to wait for a branch to open when help is needed at midnight.

Think about it. We give time to what remembers us, engages us, and feels personal. Banking is no different. Only here, it isn’t about swipes or scrolls, it’s relevance in life-changing moments: avoiding a late fee, getting forewarning before a paycheck runs out, or knowing their institution is watching out for them. For many Americans, they are just one medical bill or missed paycheck away from financial strain. This isn’t about convenience, it’s survival.

That’s why the bar has moved. Digital banking must be as engaging as the apps that dominate attention, but with a higher purpose: financial awareness, wellness, and growth.

Learning from the experts

We all live in the attention economy now. Tech giants have seemingly cracked the code: deliver the right content, to the right person, at the right moment, and they’ll keep scrolling well past midnight. Every swipe, scroll, and late-night binge on TikTok or Netflix proves it: attention, arguably the world’s most valuable currency, can be harnessed.

Now imagine harnessing that same science of attention from selling content or ads, in a way that actually helps people. Imagine using it to improve financial wellness.

Picture your banking app knowing your financial story the way Netflix knows your last show. Imagine asking a question at 11 p.m. and getting a warm, human-like response instead of silence. Not a gimmick. Not a chatbot script. But an interaction that feels genuinely human, even if it’s delivered at scale.

The new standard is becoming delivering the right interaction, at the right time, in the right tone, and doing it consistently at scale.

You already know and want this, but why isn’t your digital banking platform keeping pace? Why haven’t financial institutions translated the same science of attention to anticipate users needs and guide outcomes?

That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in.

How AI bridges the gap

We’re only scratching the surface of what AI can unlock in digital banking, but the early signals are unmistakable. Every click, every inquiry, every conversation is a fragment. Alone, they don’t mean much. Together, stitched by AI, they form context, and possibly the secret ingredient that makes service feel personal.

That’s when an app stops being a utility and starts becoming an experience.

Here’s where the biggest opportunities are emerging:

• AI Agents + Digital Banking = Engagement Loop
  Users return to digital banking apps not only to check balances, but because the app helps them stay on track–nudging them toward goals, flagging risks, and anticipating needs. That’s when interactions move beyond transactions and become relationships.
• Intelligence + Relationship Management = Context
  Conversations become data-rich touchpoints. A balance inquiry might reveal financial stress. AI can equip your team to respond with empathy, guidance, and timely solutions that transform one-off interactions into lasting, trusted relationships.

The return on investment (ROI) story is still early and the integrations are in early phases, but AI will make digital banking more engaging, more human, and ultimately, more resilient.

The Alkami and Eltropy advantage

At its core, banking has always been about people helping people. What has changed, however, is the medium. Fewer branch visits don’t mean lower expectations. If anything, the expectation for warmth and trust has only grown stronger. This is where Alkami and Eltropy’s partnership can make all the difference.

The Alkami Digital Banking Platform was built not just for transactions, but for relationships. By weaving Eltropy’s AI-driven conversations into Alkami’s secure foundation, financial institutions can deliver the same personal support users once expected in-branch, now seamlessly across digital channels.

• Self-service with support when it matters: Your users get autonomy, with a safety net of timely, personalized help.
• Conversations that build trust and context: Every interaction, irrespective of the medium, builds empathy and trust.
• Digital with a human heart: Digital banking doesn’t have to feel cold. With AI, your digital channels become as warm as a branch visit.

This isn’t about replacing people. It’s about scaling the people-helping-people mission from branch to digital.

Move from answer to action

1. Start with personalization

Netflix already knows what you’ll watch next. Amazon already knows what you’ll want to buy next. Why should your digital banking platform be any different?

With AI, financial institutions can shift gears to Anticipatory Banking: surfacing insights, nudges, and financial recommendations before the account holder expresses them.. It doesn’t have to stop at awareness; you can also leverage it to move your users from “you might benefit from refinancing” to actually “initiating the workflow” with a single tap.

2. Bring in consistency

Users bounce between app, phone, branch, and chat. Their story resets every time. With AI, financial institutions get a single intelligence layer that remembers yesterday’s chat when a user calls today. And, this consistency is not only about remembering or memory; it’s also about actions: AI can help your users freeze a card, move money, schedule a callback, generate a compliant letter, and more. Empathy goes a long way

A digital-first user is looking for convenience but without losing the human touch. This is self-service with empathy.

AI can pick up sentiment, adjust its tone in real time, and provide a reassuring message at the right moment. But empathy without action is sympathy. A truly empathetic AI solution can move beyond “I understand” and truly fix the problem. If it senses stress about a late payment, it restructures a reminder, offers options, or escalates with context in a quick and pre-filled manner.

3. Implement guardrails

With great power comes great responsibility. AI must not only have “human-like” empathy, it must also be “human-like” when it comes to trustworthiness. Every interaction must be explainable, auditable, and compliant. A responsible AI auto-generates audit-ready documentation, flags anomalies early, and keeps regulators confident.

The future is AI experience

Your users are already conditioned to expect relevance, speed, and empathy as the default. The attention economy won’t wait for you to catch up.

The future of digital banking isn’t bots replacing people. It’s shifting the emphasis on the quality of the experience that AI provides, scaling the best of human service across millions of interactions. Every click, every conversation, every moment becomes anticipatory, contextual, and empathetic.

With Alkami’s Platform as the foundation, and Eltropy’s AI powering intelligent conversations, this vision is already being built. Financial institutions that embrace it will win trust, loyalty, and space in their users’ memories.

Will your digital banking solutions remain a utility, or become part of your users’ daily story?

The quality of the AI experience is how you earn that place. It’s how you deliver people helping people at scale.