123 platform in Foundry and Copilot Studio, governed data, and the security and compliance of Entra, Purview and Defender. But it’s the industry expertise of its vast partner ecosystem that brings the frontier bank vision to life. “Our partner ecosystem has three layers,” says Baviere. “First, core and payment software providers like Temenos, Finastra and FIS are modernising their platforms on Microsoft Azure and opening them up to agents, so banks can add intelligence without dismantling the core. Second, the networks – including Mastercard, Visa and PayPal – are preparing for the age of agents. For instance, Mastercard’s Agent Pay is collaborating with Microsoft, using Azure OpenAI and Copilot Studio to make agent-initiated payments secure and dependable, with agent tokens as shared credentials. Third, global systems integrators such as Accenture, BCG, KPMG and EY bring the process and regulatory expertise to get these solutions into production safely.” Commerzbank provides a standout example of the intelligent, scalable and replicable banking services that are now possible. It developed Ava, an AI banking assistant, on Azure AI Foundry Agent Service and the Microsoft Agent Framework. Ava already handles more than 30,000 customer conversations per month and resolves about three-quarters of them autonomously. Importantly, the bank sees this as a blueprint for safely adopting AI in a regulated environment. “The most valuable partner work is the creation of reusable patterns that can move from one bank and one process to many,” says Pichach. “Banks should look for ecosystem programmes with clear ownership, shared controls, measurable business outcomes and a path from pilot to production. That is what turns AI from a promising experiment into an institutional capability.” The genius of the frontier bank lies in integrating AI to orchestrate existing systems and new capabilities, providing real-time intelligence and behaviour that legacy systems could not deliver. By wrapping the core in a layer of intelligent orchestration, banks can transform the way they do things while giving a new lease of life to this trusted platform. “The same governed data and agents can now serve a customer conversation, execute the operational steps behind it and update the case,” says Baviere. “This will blur the traditional notions of front, middle and back office, which define the way work traditionally flowed between systems and teams. It doesn’t make the core system obsolete though – instead, we will see it transform as part of an AIorchestrated fabric.” With agentic AI able to carry context, policy and intent across the full journey, Pichach says customer and business outcomes, not system processes, will become the best organising principle for banks. “The opportunity is to redesign products and operating models for a world where customers, employees and enterprises increasingly use agents themselves,” concludes Pichach. “The core remains essential as the trusted system of record, but intelligence, orchestration and experience move into a more flexible layer around it. That is the future direction: human-led, AIoperated and outcome-oriented.” “ The most valuable partner work is the creation of reusable patterns that can move from one bank and one process to many” Tyler Pichach, Microsoft
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