Backbase, the provider of an AI-native banking operating system, has made its Conversational Banking product generally available.
The release lets AI agents turn plain-language requests from customers and staff into real banking actions, within limits set by each bank.
The product moves banking beyond simply giving people digital access. It lets agents complete tasks under defined rules. A customer can describe what they need in everyday words, such as cancelling and reissuing a lost card, checking the status of a payment, or advancing a service query.
The agent then draws on that customer’s context and the bank’s connected systems to carry out whatever it is authorised to do. If a matter needs further investigation or a human decision, it passes to a staff member along with the relevant details and a summary of what the agent has already done.
Backbase sees this as a way for banks to handle more service demand while deepening customer relationships. It cites McKinsey & Company research suggesting agentic AI could reduce bank operating costs by 15% to 20%. Those savings would come from automating routine tasks and cutting down on repeated requests for information, which would give staff more time for advisory work, exceptions and complicated cases.
Governance sits inside the execution layer through Backbase’s Banking OS. Each bank decides which data, knowledge sources and tools its agents can reach, which actions they may take, and where a human must sign off. Customers must explicitly confirm any significant action. Logs of the context, checks, decisions and results support a full audit trail.
The product is already live at more than ten banks. At one of South Africa’s four biggest lenders, it has handled 22 million customer interactions and raised self-service containment from 20% to 70%.
Conversational Banking runs on Backbase’s Banking OS and works with the digital banking systems banks already use. Institutions can start with a few chosen use cases, link the systems those use cases need and set their own controls, without replacing their existing online or mobile banking platforms.
The offering is one way into Backbase’s wider Agentic Banking portfolio. The portfolio also includes Relationship Intelligence, which helps banks predict what customers will need, and Customer Operations, which coordinates fulfilment across teams and systems. Each product is designed as a separate starting point towards what Backbase calls a Unified Frontline, where customers, staff and AI agents share context and work within authority set by the bank.
Backbase founder and CEO Jouk Pleiter said, “Digital banking put the bank in the customer’s pocket. The next step is to let customers say what they need done and have the bank’s agents act on it intelligently. That future has now arrived early: one where agents do the work, and banks stay in control. It completely changes both the customer experience and the economics of serving them.”
Meriwest CTO Gene Fichtenholz said, “Backbase’s conversational AI has delivered real business value. We’ve seen tangible savings through increased automation and call containment while giving customers a faster and more convenient service experience.”
VeraBank senior EVP and chief treasury and digital banking officer Michael Purifoy said, “Backbase brought all our sources of truth together and gave our employees a single, searchable home for information. They simply ask a question and get the answers they need to support and serve our customers.”
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