For decades, financial services have claimed to be “customer centric.” In reality, customers have been doing most of the centering – repeating their story across channels, navigating disconnected journeys, and tolerating experiences that feel more like obstacle courses than relationships.
That era is ending. Not because banks suddenly got nicer; but because data + AI + omnichannel CX have made poor experiences economically indefensible.
Let’s unpack what’s really changing, why it matters to the C-suite, and how leaders are turning omnichannel from a buzzword into a balance-sheet advantage.
Market Shift: From Channel Presence to Journey Ownership
Financial institutions once competed on products. Then pricing. Then, digital access.
What has changed? They compete on experience continuity.
Customers don’t think about channels. They think about moments:
- “I applied online—why doesn’t the branch know?”
- “I chatted yesterday—why am I explaining this again?”
- “You have my data—why are you guessing?”
The market shift is clear:
- From multichannel → omnichannel
- From siloed interactions → orchestrated journeys
- From static rules → adaptive intelligence
And AI is the quiet force making this shift scalable, not just aspirational.
Digital Transformation Gave Us Channels. Data & AI Are Giving Us Coherence.
The story didn’t start with AI. The first wave of digital transformation in the mid-2010s was about presence: mobile apps, online portals, chatbots, and a collective sigh of relief when customers could finally do basic tasks without calling a contact center.
Financial institutions modernized cores, launched digital banking, and invested heavily in analytics and personalization engines. There were some early gains, and “digital transformation” became a board-level talking point. But then progress plateaued.
Technology raced ahead while organizations lagged, leaving data fragmented, journeys disconnected, and experiences inconsistent. In financial services, this gap proved costly. By the late 2010s, many institutions had digital tools but not digital coherence. The result? CX stopped improving despite continued investment.
According to Forrester’s Customer Experience Index, CX quality among U.S. brands hit an all-time low in 2024 after declining three years in a row. Many brands failed to provide seamless, easy, and emotionally engaging experiences, even after their initial tech upgrades.
That’s where we are now: entering a second wave, where data and AI don’t just digitize interactions—they connect with them, learn from them, and finally make omnichannel real.
Data Is the Foundation; AI is the Enabler
Modern CX is built on unified customer data; bringing together interaction history across channels, transactional and behavioral signals, CRM and core banking data, and critical risk, compliance, and lifecycle context.
This isn’t about accumulating more data; it’s about making the right data available at the exact moment of interaction. However, data alone is passive. AI makes it actionable. This is where financial services cross the line from “digital CX” to experience intelligence.
AI enables:
- Real-time intent detection across channels
- Next-best-action recommendations
- Proactive outreach before frustration escalates
- Automated resolution for high-volume, low-risk tasks
And most importantly, AI doesn’t replace humans. It rescues them from repetitive work so they can handle what actually matters.
From Reactive Service to Intelligent Experience: The SakCare Advantage
As we are talking about omnichannel experiences, we must not forget that customers don’t care if it’s a “portal,” a “bot,” or a “call center agent”—they only want their problem solved, effortlessly and consistently without repeating themselves to every new touchpoint.
Most organizations attempt to “build” intelligent service capabilities from scratch that typically means heavy upfront capital investments, high customization and integration risks, heavy maintenance and a long, drawn-out implementation cycle.
SakCare is our ready-to-deploy, AI-powered service accelerator designed to help organizations move from reactive customer support to intelligent, proactive, and continuous service experiences. Instead of spending months assembling foundational capabilities, organizations can go live in just eight weeks with a ready-to-deploy solution. Built on Salesforce and Agentforce, SakCare leverages Data 360’s Zero Copy architecture to unify transaction history, service interactions, behavioral signals, and operational data – creating a single, governed source of truth without moving or duplicating data.
What it does?
It detects friction before it escalates, identifies intent in real time, automates routine tasks instantly, and escalates complex cases intelligently. Instead of waiting for customers to complain, SakCare anticipates needs and intervenes responsibly.
The result:
- Higher First Contact Resolution
- Reduced service escalations
- Improved SLA adherence
- Reduced operational cost
- Stronger customer trust
As SakCare works on a unified, governed data foundation, every interaction, whether it is digital or assisted, remains continuous and context-aware across every channel, making a significant difference in the overall customer service experience.
Strategic Takeaway: Experience Powered by Intelligence
In financial services, trust is earned slowly and lost quickly. Institutions are no longer judged solely on product portfolios or pricing structures. They are evaluated on how intelligently, securely, and seamlessly they engage customers across the moments that matter most. As AI, advanced analytics, and unified data platforms become embedded into core operations, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on how well institutions understand customer intent, anticipate needs, and respond with relevance and responsibility.
This is where Saksoft plays a focused role. We partner with financial institutions to move from fragmented, channel-centric interactions to connected, intelligently orchestrated customer journeys. Financial institutions must treat experience as a strategic capability, powered by real-time intelligence, unified data, and proactive, personalized engagement — rather than as a set of disconnected technologies. The idea is to resolve issues more efficiently while strengthening relationships over time, enhancing loyalty, and unlocking new value from every interaction.
Customers rarely remember your most lucrative offers or headline rates. They always remember how you made them feel when it mattered most.
