Stop Calling Banking's AI Adoption a Frozen Middle

What's Going On In Banking · Sep 10, 2026 · 39m

Banking’s AI adoption isn’t frozen. It’s early, uneven, and a lot more complicated than handing everyone a ChatGPT license and calling it transformation.

Ron Shevlin and Stacey Bryant take apart the “frozen middle” narrative, explain why banks need to fund the less flashy stuff like APIs, data access, infrastructure, and process redesign, and warn that giving 500 employees AI tools could create 500 undocumented ways of working. Because apparently “let everyone run amok” is not an AI strategy.

Then they dig into the SoFi playbook credit unions keep overlooking, the student-lending ROI trap…