The Banking Playbook Is Changing. The Target Shouldn’t.
How AI, digital banking, and changing customer expectations are reshaping the way banks create value
Banking has never been static, but the pace and nature of change facing financial institutions today are difficult to ignore. Artificial intelligence is changing how consumers search for financial information. Digital platforms have made it easier to compare products, move money, and manage financial lives across multiple providers. At the same time, banks are investing heavily in technology intended to improve efficiency, customer experience, and growth.
The challenge for banking leaders is not deciding whether to change. Change is already happening. The more important question is whether banks can adapt their strategies, technology, and customer experiences without losing sight of what those changes are supposed to accomplish.
Walter Bond describes this kind of leadership as adaptability with conviction: remaining firm about the destination while being willing to change the route.
For banks navigating AI and digital transformation, that distinction matters. The Playbook may need to change considerably. The Target should not.
Technology Investment Is Not the Same as Progress
Banks have invested significantly in technology, but investment alone does not guarantee better business outcomes. McKinsey’s analysis of technology spending in banking argues that institutions can struggle to articulate the actual value created by those investments. The firm recommends connecting technology initiatives to specific corporate priorities and measurable business outcomes rather than treating modernization as an objective in itself.
That distinction becomes especially important as banks consider investments in AI, mobile applications, automation, employee platforms, and other digital capabilities. A new technology may be impressive, but the more useful question is what it enables the organization to do better.
Does it strengthen customer relationships? Improve service? Help employees make better decisions? Create new opportunities for growth? Reduce friction? Increase customer loyalty?
McKinsey’s research also makes an important point about execution: technology is an enabler of broader business transformation. Capturing its value can require changes to business processes, employee adoption, marketing, and even the people an institution hires.
In other words, technology changes the Playbook, but people still have to execute it.
Customers Are Changing, Too
The pressure to adapt is not coming from technology alone. Customer behavior is changing alongside it.
Deloitte’s 2026 research involving 2,027 U.S. banking customers found satisfaction levels across generations ranging from 93% to 95%. Yet Gen Z and millennials demonstrated the greatest risk of switching primary banks. For younger customers in particular, satisfaction does not necessarily translate into loyalty.
Their financial lives are also increasingly distributed across multiple applications and providers. Consumers may use one platform for banking, another for investing, another for budgeting, and still another for payments or other financial needs. Deloitte found that nearly 70% of the Gen Z and millennial customers surveyed had authorized their banks to share data with other financial providers.
That creates an interesting challenge for traditional financial institutions. A customer can be satisfied with a bank while simultaneously becoming less dependent on it.
Banks therefore have to compete for more than customer satisfaction. They have to continually demonstrate value.
AI Creates a New Test of Trust
Generative AI adds another layer to this changing relationship.
In a separate 2026 study of nearly 2,600 U.S. banking customers, Deloitte found that consumers are already using generative AI to research financial products, but they remain cautious about how much authority they are willing to give it. Among respondents, 72% expressed concern about sharing information about their financial situation with generative AI tools, and only 46% trusted the accuracy of banking recommendations generated by those tools. By comparison, 79% trusted information found on their banks’ own websites.
The findings become even more revealing when AI moves from providing information to taking action. Eighty-three percent of respondents said they would feel anxious about an AI agent taking action on their finances without their approval.
Yet consumers are not simply rejecting the technology. Among generative AI users surveyed by Deloitte, 58% had already used it to research banking products. Adoption was also considerably higher among younger customers.
That tension is important. Customers appear interested in the convenience and capabilities AI provides while remaining cautious about accuracy, privacy, control, and oversight.
For banks, the opportunity may not be to choose between technology and trust. It may be to determine how technology can strengthen the experience without weakening the trust that already exists.
Stay Firm on the What. Stay Flexible on the How.
Walter Bond addresses this tension through one of the principles in his Shark Mindset: sharks stay flexible.
He calls it adaptability with conviction.
“The goal doesn’t move. The path can move all it wants.”
His point is not that organizations should change direction every time something becomes difficult. It is that strong leaders understand the difference between abandoning the destination and adjusting the route.
Walter puts it another way: stay rock solid on the what, but loose and creative on the how.
That principle has particular relevance for banking right now.
AI can change how customers research financial products. Automation can change how work gets done. Mobile technology can change how customers interact with their financial institutions. New platforms can change what consumers expect from a banking experience.
Those changes deserve attention. Some require significant changes to the Playbook.
But they do not necessarily change the Target.
Target → Playbook → Roster
A bank’s Target should define the results it is trying to produce. Depending on the institution, that may include sustainable growth, stronger customer relationships, increased deposits, greater efficiency, customer loyalty, stronger communities, or long-term financial value.
The Playbook defines how the organization intends to produce those results. This is where banking is experiencing enormous change. AI, automation, digital platforms, data, personalization, and evolving customer expectations are creating new possibilities and making some older approaches less effective.
Then comes the Roster: the leaders and banking professionals responsible for executing that Playbook.
This is where digital transformation can become a leadership and organizational-development issue rather than simply a technology initiative. Employees need to understand not only how to use new tools, but why those tools matter, what outcomes they are intended to improve, and how their own roles contribute to those outcomes.
The strongest technology strategy will accomplish little if the people expected to execute it do not understand it, adopt it, or believe in the Target behind it.
Modernization Needs a Destination
Banking will continue to change. Generative AI will become more capable. Digital experiences will become more sophisticated. Customer expectations will continue to evolve, and the competitive landscape will likely become even more complex.
Banks cannot respond by protecting every part of yesterday’s Playbook. But neither should they confuse adopting the newest technology with making progress.
The institutions positioned to create lasting value will be those that know what they are trying to accomplish, remain flexible about how they accomplish it, and develop people capable of executing as the environment changes.
The Playbook can change. In many cases, it should. But progress begins with knowing which Target all that change is supposed to help you reach.
Ready to Make Progress?
Walter Bond works with leaders and organizations to strengthen alignment, accountability, leadership, and execution—helping teams adapt their Playbook without losing sight of the Target.