[Opinion] A New Model for the Future of Finance Transformed by AI

Kim Jung-min, PwC Consulting Partner (Managing Director)

The banking industry is moving beyond mobile-centric digital transformation and into a phase reshaped around artificial intelligence (AI). Going forward, banks’ competitiveness will be determined not simply by whether they have adopted AI, but by how quickly and deeply they have redesigned their organizations and decision-making structures to be “AI-centered.”

About a decade ago, the emergence of “digital banks” ushered in channel innovation across the industry. Branch-centric structures shrank rapidly, and mobile apps became the standard channel for financial services. Internet-only banks and neobanks redefined banks as app-based services, changing how customers access finance.

The AI transition now under way is different in kind from that channel innovation. That is because banks’ decision-making methods and operating mechanisms are changing. Philosophy becomes the basis for decisions, those standards are implemented as system rules, and this in turn is forming a structure that moves customers’ asset flows. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, views AI as a technological shift as significant as electricity, the printing press, and computers. JPMorgan Chase has already accumulated more than 500 AI use cases. The focus of competition is also shifting from “Do you use AI?” to “How quickly have you transitioned to an AI-centered organization?”

The industry describes this future-oriented financial model as an “AI full bank.” The core structure is that people design the direction and philosophy, AI takes charge of execution, and connected assets move and compound on top of it. In an AI full bank, people serve as philosophers who set the standards of finance; decision-makers who translate systems such as underwriting, pricing, and limits into rules; designers who observe customers’ life patterns to shape experiences; and orchestrators who coordinate multiple AI agents. A representative success case is U.S.-based SoFi. SoFi started with student loans and built a model that links the potential of young talent—overlooked by traditional finance—to financial opportunities. It then expanded lending, savings, investment, and insurance services into a single platform. More recently, it has used AI to analyze customers’ careers, income potential, and financial behaviors to provide more sophisticated financial services.

An AI full bank can also move money in practice to help customers achieve the goals they set. For example, if a customer sets a goal of raising funds for housing within three years, AI analyzes income and spending, proposes investment and savings strategies, and even carries out account transfers and investment execution. Banks are evolving from institutions that offer deposits and loans into a “trust infrastructure” that connects and moves traditional and digital assets. In fact, Singapore’s DBS Bank used AI as core operating infrastructure to cut costs by tens of billions of dollars.

These changes also carry implications for Korea’s internet-only banks. After licensing for a fourth internet-only bank fell through last year, discussions about restarting the effort are emerging in the financial sector. The next internet-only bank should be designed from the outset with an AI-centered structure and become a platform that manages assets around customer goals. The competitiveness of Korea’s financial industry depends on the success of the AI full bank.