From transactions to trust: How AI is transforming CX in financial services

In financial services, customers expect both security and speed—a balance that’s becoming more difficult to maintain. According to Zendesk’s CX Trends 2026, 81% of financial services leaders say instant response is now the baseline—anything slower feels broken. Yet many institutions still operate on aging processes, siloed data, and complex regulatory requirements that slow teams down just when customer expectations are accelerating.

AI is changing that story. Rather than replacing human service, it’s becoming the engine that powers faster, more consistent, and more secure customer experiences—while still making room for empathy. Three financial institutions—Siemens Financial Services, SB Finance, and Xe & Ria—are showing what it looks like when AI becomes a strategic lever instead of a tactical layer.

Siemens Financial Services: Leveraging AI so agents can focus on relationship-driven conversations

For Siemens Financial Services, the path to AI transformation began with a familiar obstacle: fragmentation. Operating across multiple regions meant customer data lived in different systems, and agents often had to navigate email inboxes, spreadsheets, and local tools just to piece together a complete picture of a customer’s issue. It’s a common challenge—82% of financial services CX leaders say that failing to connect siloed knowledge can cause AI to deliver inconsistent answers that erode trust.

Siemens tackled this challenge by first unifying their CX platform with Zendesk, followed by layering in Advanced AI agents. Suddenly, routine requests—like sending customers a copy of their invoice—could be automated. Even more importantly, integrating back-office systems meant both AI and human agents could quickly access the documents and contract details they needed to resolve issues with confidence.

The impact was immediate. The Nordics team saw a 23% productivity boost, and productivity in France doubled within one year. Customer satisfaction rose to 3%, above the industry benchmark. But perhaps the most important shift was for the agents themselves: with AI handling repetitive tasks, they could spend more time on the nuanced, relationship-driven conversations that strengthen long-term trust.

For Siemens, AI didn’t depersonalize service—it created the space for more meaningful human interactions.

SB Finance: Where speed, compliance, and modernization meet

If Siemens’ story is about global consistency, SB Finance’s is about building CX infrastructure that can evolve as quickly as compliance demands. The company—born from a partnership between Security Bank and Bank of Ayudhya—was managing customer issues manually through forms, email and social media. As inquiry volumes grew and the Central Bank of the Philippines newest regulations required more centralized tracking, the limitations of manual processes became impossible to ignore.

They aren’t alone. 88% of financial services leaders say AI materially accelerates first-reply and resolution speed, a critical advantage for institutions balancing operational efficiency with stringent compliance.

By adopting Zendesk, SB Finance centralized all service channels into a single platform. An AI agent began managing repetitive social media inquiries, ensuring customers received quick responses while freeing agents to address more complex cases. Automated routing helped leaders cut down the time spent manually assigning and tracking tickets.

The results speak to both efficiency and compliance readiness:

• Social media inquiries routed to humans dropped by 52%

• Team leaders saved 90 minutes every day

This wasn’t just a modernization effort—it was a shift toward future-proofing their customer operations. With AI handling routine work, SB Finance built a CX model that is faster, more transparent, and better aligned with regulatory expectations, all while keeping the human element intact.

Xe & Ria: Delivering empathy and speed when financial moments matter most

In global money transfers, customer interactions often carry emotional weight. People reach out when they need certainty, reassurance, and speed. It’s no surprise that 46% of financial services agents say customers increasingly expect personalized service, especially in high-stakes financial moments.

Xe and Ria, leaders in remittance under Euronet Worldwide, were feeling that pressure. Inquiry volumes were rising across languages and channels, but support teams didn’t have unified systems or full customer context at their fingertips. That made it hard to respond quickly—let alone empathetically.

Unifying CX on Zendesk and deploying multilingual AI agents allowed them to reimagine their support model. Their AI now handles 35,000 chats per month, fully resolving 40% of them without human intervention. Handle times dropped by double digits and CSAT improved across regions.

But what makes their story stand out is the role AI plays in strengthening—not replacing—human connection. By clearing away the routine inquiries, Xe and Ria’s agents can devote their attention to complex, sensitive cases that require active listening and personal reassurance. In an industry where empathy is essential, automation became a tool for preserving it at scale.

AI as the trust multiplier in Financial Services

Across these three organizations, one theme becomes clear: AI is emerging as a critical trust multiplier in financial services. When built on the right foundation, it accelerates speed and accuracy while strengthening the human experience.

Institutions that pair intelligence with empathy are redefining the standard for trustworthy service in a digital world.