The expert spoke about the prospects of introducing voice AI assistants in banks

By 2026, voice artificial intelligence (AI) will become the standard of service in 50% of the largest banks, according to Alexander Tsepelev, technical director of Fromtech, a developer in the field of voice AI. He told Izvestia about this on April 5.

Generative artificial intelligence transforms the principles of customer interaction. However, the main challenge lies not in the availability of the technologies themselves, but in their adaptation to the real needs of the business, the expert emphasized.

He explained that many credit institutions use legacy systems and require on-premise AI due to security requirements. Due to this distribution of software, the load on the banks' servers increases and scaling becomes more difficult. According to Tsepelev, a hybrid architecture becomes the optimal approach: critical data is processed locally, and response generation and intent analysis are in a secure cloud. This approach reduces the burden on the infrastructure and accelerates the implementation of new AI functions.

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In addition to technical difficulties, many banks face a low level of customer confidence in digital solutions. According to Fromtech, up to 90% of clients of financial institutions still prefer live communication with the operator. The expert explained this by social and psychological barriers. Russian AI models have not yet learned how to reproduce the natural empathy and flexibility of human communication, which creates a sense of artificial dialogue among users.

In his opinion, one of the possible solutions is the introduction of RAG systems (Retrieval—Augmented Generation). This technology allows AI not to invent an answer, but to find relevant information in the knowledge base and formulate an answer based on it.

At the same time, Tsepelev drew attention to the fact that the financial sector is gradually mastering AI — even minimal risks are unacceptable in the banking sector. Currently, technologies are being tested on the simplest operations, but their importance will only grow.

"According to trends, by 2026, voice AI will become the standard of service in 50% of the largest banks," he concluded.

Earlier, on March 12, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that in order to achieve the country's technological sovereignty, it is necessary to invest in artificial intelligence research. He noted that the federal budget provides financing for the implementation of measures in this area.