My next new book: “Intelligent Bank”

I just got a summary of my new book from the publishers. It comes out in the summer but, for those interested, here are the key messages:

Core Thesis

The book argues that banking is entering its third great technological revolution:

1. Mainframe era → automation and scale
2. Digital era → connectivity, mobile, fintech, experience
3. Intelligence era → AI-driven insight, prediction, and delegated decision-making

Skinner’s central claim is that “doing digital” is no longer enough. Banks must now become intelligent at the core, meaning they must transform data into knowledge, knowledge into insight, and insight into real-time action—across every interaction and channel.

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From Digital Bank to Intelligent Bank

What “digital” achieved

• Removed physical banking from the centre (branches, paper, people)
• Introduced apps, APIs, cloud, real-time analytics, and fintech partnerships
• Enabled mobile-first banking and open ecosystems

Why digital is incomplete

Despite huge investment, most banks:

• Still operate with fragmented data
• Lack a true, real-time customer view
• Remain product-centric, not customer-centric
• Struggle with GDPR, legacy systems, and organisational silos

Skinner argues that digital banking solved distribution, but failed to solve understanding.

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Defining the Intelligent Bank

An intelligent bank is one that:

• Has fully consolidated data and systems
• Uses AI and analytics to understand customers, not just serve products
• Anticipates needs rather than reacting to requests
• Delivers insight consistently across all touchpoints (apps, voice, wearables, cars, bots)
• Delegates decisions to intelligent systems while keeping humans “in the loop”

The shift is from:

• Automating processes

→ to digitalising experiences

→ to delegating financial decisions

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The Intelligence Revolution (AI at the Core)

While GenAI and Agentic AI dominate headlines, Skinner stresses the deeper shift:

• Intelligence is about insight, not content generation
• AI’s real value lies in pattern recognition, prediction, and orchestration

Banks already sit on vast data assets—but most of that data is:

• Duplicated
• Siloed
• Underused

Without connected, high-quality data, intelligence cannot emerge.

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Humans and Machines: Augmentation, Not Replacement

A recurring theme is human–AI collaboration:

• AI will not replace humans, but it will replace how humans work
• One person plus AI can operate like a team
• New roles will emerge even as old ones disappear

Key implications:

• Routine tasks vanish
• Interpretation, judgement, ethics, and emotional intelligence rise in importance
• Organisations that fail to reskill people will fall behind

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Customer Experience Reimagined

Future competitiveness will be driven by precision, not size:

• Hyper-personalisation (“a segment of one”)
• Micro-level balance sheet optimisation
• Targeted M&A for capability, not bulk

Rethinking “customer journeys”

Customers don’t want:

• Loans
• Mortgages
• Insurance

They want:

• Homes
• Security
• Freedom
• A life without financial anxiety

Skinner reframes finance as life enablement, not transactions—reviving his long-held concept of “Copernicus commerce”, where the customer (not the bank) is the centre of the universe.

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The Unsolved Problem: Identity and Trust

Despite technological progress, trust remains broken.

The core issue

• The internet was built for information, not identity or value
• Passwords and usernames still underpin global finance
• AI-generated voices, faces, and documents are accelerating fraud

Key questions:

• Can I trust that you are who you say you are?
• Can I prove that I am me—without exposing my data?

Skinner estimates that 2–5% of global GDP is linked to illicit activity, driven by identity failure.

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Crime, Fraud, and Systemic Fragility

The book explores:

• Deepfakes and AI-driven fraud
• Crypto, stablecoins, and illicit finance
• IT failures as a systemic risk (banks as “digital Jenga towers”)
• Regulatory overreach that reacts too late and stifles innovation

These risks expose how fragile modern digital finance really is.

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The Solution: Trust Architecture

Skinner argues that rebuilding trust requires:

• Zero Trust architectures (never assume, always verify)
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs (prove legitimacy without revealing data)
• Token-based identity models
• Stronger alignment between ethics, regulation, and technology

Trust must be designed into the system, not layered on afterward.

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The Future Bank

The “Future Bank” is:

• Invisible but omnipresent
• Embedded in daily life, not accessed via products
• Intelligent but accountable
• Automated yet ethical

It will:

• Orchestrate life, value, and risk in real time
• Move beyond owning infrastructure
• Compete primarily on trust

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Long-Term Outlook (2035–2100)

Looking ahead, the book explores:

• Quantum computing as the next major disruption
• Tokenised assets and programmable money
• The decline of wallets, cards, and even phones
• AI reshaping work, talent, and economic structures
• The implications of Big Tech, crypto, and global power shifts

Skinner concludes that the future will reward:

• Adaptability over strength
• Intelligence balanced with ethics
• Innovation anchored in trust

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Overall Takeaway

 Intelligent Bank is not a book about technology alone. It is a warning and a roadmap. Banks that fail to move from digital to intelligent will not survive—not because they lack apps or AI, but because they fail to earn trust in an autonomous, AI-driven world.