By Kristi Cunningham, U.S. Chief Technology Officer at Kyndryl
This year’s message at Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt made one point unmistakable: payments modernization is complex. Successful execution requires a new operating model that fuses core resiliency, data discipline and auditable AI. Financial institutions adopting this approach will win on speed and safety – delivering richer ISO 20022 data, the global standard for structured financial messaging – to improve interoperability and compliance, reduce exceptions and scale in real–time.
In presentations and customer conversations, my colleagues and I shared our findings from countless engagements that modernization and AI must be complementary.
Here’s more of what we discussed about how banks and other financial entities can translate digital ambitions into measurable outcomes.
What success looks like
Winners treat modernization and AI as a singular goal:
- Modernization: Integrate AI into existing IT and eliminate technical debt and minimize disruption.
- Composable banking: Shorten time-to-market for personalized services.
- Data observability and trust: Establish a single source of truth through visibility and governance models.
- Security and compliance: Supercharge auditing and fraud detection with AI.
- Sustainable infrastructure: Use AI to meet both performance and sustainability goals.
The bottom line: By applying agentic AI that incorporates governance, system visibility and security protocols, financial institutions can speed development of new services, reduce fraud and be ready for whatever comes next in a rapidly changing competitive and regulatory environment.