Every community and regional bank in the country is being asked to deliver the kind of digital experience customers now expect from the largest institutions in the world, with a fraction of the budget, the headcount and the engineering bench. That gap, between rising expectations and finite resources, is the defining challenge in local banking right now. It’s also the one we think AI is genuinely built to close, provided it’s deployed with discipline.
That’s the conversation our newly appointed Chief Customer Officer Matt Wilson will bring to MoneyLIVE North America 2026 next week. On Tuesday, September 15 at 11:40am, Matt will join executives from Old National Bank, Meridian Credit Union and BankTech Ventures for a panel discussion: “The Modernization Playbook: Bringing Institutional-Grade Efficiency to Local Banking.”
Here’s the uncomfortable truth the session is built around: most banks have an AI pilot. Very few have an AI deployment doing real work in production. The distance between those two things is where most modernization efforts quietly stall.
“Almost every bank I talk to has an AI pilot. Far fewer have an AI deployment doing real, significant work in production,” said Matt Wilson, Chief Customer Officer at Engageware. “The technology exists, but most banks lack the experience, focus and governance to make it happen. The institutions pulling ahead aren’t spending the most. They’re the ones that picked the high-volume journeys that actually matter, put guardrails around them and shipped.”
If you plan to attend the panel discussion, expect a working session more than a highlight reel. The panel will get specific about which technology investments actually move efficiency, what organizational change it takes to get AI out of the lab and into production and the practical applications that deliver measurable value without a national-bank budget. Things like automating high-volume customer journeys, routing customers to the right expert and equipping employees with consistent, approved answers. Matt and his fellow panelists will dive into all of it, with an eye toward the governance and auditability that regulated environments demand.
If you’ll be at MoneyLIVE North America and want to talk through how financial institutions can modernize customer engagement and turn AI strategy into measurable business outcomes, come find us at the show.
