Christof De Mil, Country Manager of KBC Group in Bulgaria and Chief Executive Officer of UBB, presented his vision about the role of technologies and innovations and their application in the field of banking during the BANCEE25 – 4th Annual Banking CEE Expo international innovation forum.

The leader of the biggest banking and insurance group in Bulgaria was a keynote speaker at the opening session of the event and within his presentation he delineated the present and future in the use of technologies, artificial intelligence and digitalization in banking. He touched upon topics, such as customer experience, ecospheres, artificial intelligence and the penetration of AI agents in daily work, data management and data handling, non-financial services, offered by banks, the regulation and the opportunities it offers, the competition and cooperation between banks and fintech companies, the personalization, convenience and trust that banks should offer in the relations with their customers.

„The future is in the ever-growing use of artificial intelligence and AI agents, and in the creation of customer ecosystems. The creation of a successful ecosystem requires very detailed understanding of customers’ behaviour in their daily routine. People nowadays do not want (just banking) products, but comprehensive solutions to their needs, extending far beyond banking propositions. The financial services sector has an important advantage, because it is present in nearly all important ecosystems, where our customers are positioned: housing, mobility, travel, recreation, health. The question here is how to link the dots in the ecosystems, to be as useful as possible for them and to extract maximum benefit from this competitive advantage.“, he shared.

The big question is whether in your strategy you are a leader in the ecosystem creation process. It is especially valid for local markets, where strong banking and financial groups at local level, such as KBC Group in Bulgaria, have the opportunity to work with local partners and offer solutions, tailored to the local needs of a smaller market, in which global leaders do not show such persistent interest.

Artificial intelligence is not going to replace humans, but people who are skilled in using it will replace the ones that are not, forecasted Christof De Mil and added that the future belonged to the AI Agents, who - contrary to the already known products involving artificial intelligence - offer a high level of autonomy, self-learning and proactive behaviour. Thus, they will considerably facilitate the work of employees, as well as the creation of feasible processes and products. “The AI agents, along with the enormous quantity of data available with banks, will provide us with an opportunity to become super personalized. We will be able to grasp the needs of customers even before they have expressed their desires – that what we call „intent-thinking“ – and be proactive, without compromising security. The challenge will be to prepare young people to think in a critical way and question the actions of the AI and the AI agents. Young people will be born and brought up alongside with AI and will be taking the results it gives them for granted. They will not have experience and criteria to understand what is still correct and proper and what is not. The solution to that is companies to not fully automate all processes through AI (agents), but allow people to work in parallel, so that critical minds could question the results it offers, in order to continue evolving“, said the Chief Executive Officer of UBB, while delineating the future of the banking sector in the new technological environment.

BANCEE25, Sofia, gathered the opinions of leading experts, representatives of the banking sector, FinTech companies from Central and Eastern Europe. The speakers, who shared their opinions on the future of innovations and technologies in the financial sphere also involved Tatyana Ivanova, Executive Director Digitalization, Data and Operations at UBB and Innovation Leader of KBC Group in Bulgaria and Elena Nasalevska, General Manager Digital Channels and Kate.