Driving Meaningful Change in Financial Services: Insights from the Banking Transformation Summit 2025 

The financial services and insurance industry continues to face significant pressure to modernise their data infrastructure. With evolving customer expectations, regulatory change, and the pace of digital innovation, data transformation and AI adoption in financial services has become an ongoing process instead of a one-time effort.

At the Banking Transformation Summit 2025, a range of practical insights emerged around vast array of different data themes ranging from data strategy and foundations to AI and the rise of open-source technology.  

This blog explores four core ideas which were discussed throughout the exhibition, giving financial organisations the insights to accelerate change with clarity and confidence.  

1. Data Strategy Starts with Use Cases 

Too many data initiatives stumble because they begin with technology, not intent. 

A more effective approach to data strategy is to begin by identifying and prioritising specific business problems which can be solved by data.  

Whether it’s improving customer onboarding, reducing fraud or optimising credit decisions – prioritising what’s measurable and meaningful can make a big difference. 

By documenting and ranking these use cases, teams can focus their efforts where values are most likely to be delivered. From there, a robust data strategy can be built to support them, ensuring alignment with broader business objectives, regulatory compliance, and scalable architecture.  

Open banking, in particular, presents opportunities to enrich products and services – but only if pursued within a clear and governed framework. Without this, you are held back by your data, slowing down progress and halting the competitive edge. 

2. Operational Discipline Enables Scalable Change 

Many financial organisations still rely on manual effort and ad-hoc heroics to deliver change – leading to inconsistency, risk and inefficiency. 

Moving to a process-oriented model changes the game. When common tasks like software deployment, risk reviews or incident management are formalised and repeatable, change becomes easier to plan, monitor and scale. This approach doesn’t just support efficiency, its enables resilience, compliance and ongoing innovation. 

3. Behavioural Science is Key to Success 

Successful change in financial services doesn’t just involve tools; it involves people. Technological change is only successful when it’s supported by behavioural change at every level of the organisation. 

Lewin’s model of ‘Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze’ still holds true: 

1. Unfreeze: Challenge the current state and create readiness for change. 

2. Change: Support people through the transition to a new way of working.  

3. Refreeze: Reinforce the new behaviours until they become the norm. 

However, change is rarely linear. Common cognitive biases (such as status quo bias) can block transformation. That is why financial organisations must use both push and pull factors: push away outdated incentives and pull in desired change through positive reinforcement.  

The goal is to design an environment where the right choice is the easy one, using financial data to drive growth and mitigate risk.

4. Adopting Open-Source AI in Banking 

Once you have implemented these foundations, the question is ‘how do I implement AI tools in my financial services organisation?’ Fortunately, AI is no longer the exclusive domain of big tech.  

Open-source AI tools are democratising access, experimentation, and control – especially in highly regulated sectors like banking. Real-world impacts of Generative AI are proof that open-source AI tools are heading towards the same future.  

Such tools allow teams to build advanced AI features like chatbots, internal search tools or customer insight engines – all without sending data to the cloud. 

From intelligent chatbots to customer insight engines, open-source AI gives teams powerful tools to build, test, and deploy with agility, whilst simultaneously still meeting strict privacy and compliance needs. 

Conclusion 

Overall, conversations at the Banking Transformation Summit 2025 are evidence that change is not just about adopting new tools but also building environments that support continuous improvement. To get there, starting with the right use cases, maturing operational capabilities, designing for human behaviour as well as leveraging the flexible of open-source technology all play a crucial part in this journey. 

These interconnected approaches create a foundation for meaningful, lasting transformation – one that’s grounded in purpose, driven by people and powered by smart, scalable systems. 

Ready to Accelerate Change in your Financial Services Organisation? 

At Simpson Associates, we help financial services organisations turn raw data into actionable insights.  

As a Microsoft Partner of the Year 2024/25 winner and a trusted Denodo partner with deep industry experience, we are well equipped to help you transform your financial services data, no matter where you are on your journey. 

If you have any questions or want to learn more about our services, feel free to get in touch via email or via our live chat. 

Blog Author:
Ash Ward, Lead Consultant at Simpson Associates