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AI is about to redefine banking as we know it — not by digitising existing processes, but by taking the act of banking out of consumers’ hands entirely.
AI will do the banking for you
According to Abdeslam Alaoui Smaili, Co-Founder and CEO of Hightech Payment Systems (HPS), we are entering a new phase of financial evolution in which AI-powered agents will handle everyday money management, rendering many traditional banking interactions obsolete.
Speaking with Alex Rolfe, Managing Director of Payments Cards & Mobile, at the HPS WeMeeting 25 event, Alaoui Smaili described a dramatic shift in customer expectations and industry structure.
“A couple of years ago, people said, “I won’t go to the bank — I’ll do banking,” he said. “Now customers are saying, ‘someone else will do banking for me.’ We are entering the do-it-for-me economy, and that someone will be AI.”
AI as the Next Financial Revolution
Abdeslam Alaoui compared the coming wave of AI transformation to past industrial revolutions that reshaped how money moves through the economy. But this one, he said, will unfold much faster.
“If you think about the timeline of how AI surprised you — it started two years ago, then every quarter, then every month. Now it’s every week, and soon it will be every day,” he observed. “Every revolution has changed the way money moves. We are entering one of the deepest transformations yet.”
He pointed to Apple Pay as a blueprint for what may come next. “Apple was selling devices, iPods, iPhones — and suddenly, they took half of the commission of any payment transaction happening with Apple Pay,” he said. “So I’m wondering, with all these transformations, who will take that next big slice?”
For Abdeslam Alaoui , the answer lies in the rise of AI agents — intelligent, autonomous systems capable of executing financial tasks on behalf of users. “You’ll simply say, ‘Hey, ChatGPT, send £100 from my current account,’” he explained.
“The AI will connect to your issuing bank, retrieve the details, complete the transfer, and take a commission for the service. Whoever owns that agent — a bank, OpenAI, or another provider — will own the customer relationship.”
From Open Banking to Agentic Banking
The implications for banks are profound. Abdeslam Alaoui sees today’s Open Banking infrastructure — the regulated framework allowing data and payment sharing between institutions — as a foundation for a coming “agentic economy.”
“Open Banking today is just pipes,” he said. “But if we have these AI apps everywhere, those aggregators could transform themselves into agent providers. That’s where the value will be — in managing the AI agents that drive every financial transaction.”
In this new world, he argued, speed and adaptability will separate the survivors from the casualties.
“The top 20 big techs and fintechs already serve four billion customers, while the top 20 banks serve 2.7 billion,” Abdeslam Alaoui noted.
“It might already be too late for some. The banks that win will be those that move fast, that build AI-native infrastructure rather than trying to bolt AI onto old systems.”
Security and Trust in the Agent Economy
Asked whether new layers of digital identity would be required for this shift, Abdeslam Alaoui was pragmatic.
“We need an explicit step where the user gives a mandate to the agent,” he said. “It’s not because you logged into your app that the agent is authorised to act. You have to explicitly approve, through a digital signature, so that in case of dispute we can prove that you gave that mandate.”
But despite the radical transformation underway, he doesn’t expect governments or banks to impose completely new credential frameworks — at least not yet.
“As of now, nothing totally unseen is needed. We know how to authenticate securely,” he said. “If regulators identify risks, they will intervene as they did with Strong Customer Authentication in Europe. But if we add too many layers, we’ll kill the purpose — the goal is seamlessness with security.”
The Future Is Already Happening
For Abdeslam Alaoui, this evolution is not some distant concept — it is unfolding now. Technologies such as Google’s ACP Agent protocol, which standardises how AI systems communicate, are already laying the foundations of an agent ecosystem.
“The basics of how these agents communicate are already established,” he explained. “Now it’s about building businesses on top of that infrastructure — businesses that will generate value by executing tasks for customers.”
His conclusion is stark for the banking industry: “This transformation is deep, and it’s happening fast. The ones that adapt — that rebuild themselves for AI — will survive. For the rest, it might already be too late.”
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