Before AI Runs the Bank, It Can Replace the Card

Success with agentic AI will depend on how well banks redesign their operational foundations, Thales Head of AI-Driven Operations Platform Amélie Tournant Fourel writes in a new PYMNTS eBook, “Building the Agent-Ready Payments Enterprise.”

As artificial intelligence shifts from copilots to agents, the focus is moving from assistance to execution. The real question is no longer how AI can support employees, but where systems can be trusted to take on real work.

Progress will not come from adding intelligence on top of existing systems. It will come from selecting the right workflows and building the operational conditions that allow AI to perform at scale. This also requires defining clear guardrails to ensure trust and control.

So where should banks start?

For issuing banks under pressure to modernize operations, improve responsiveness and reduce manual overhead, the most immediate opportunity is operational. Card issuance processes, such as card request and lifecycle management, sit at the core of customer servicing. These processes are high-volume, structured and fundamental to customer experience and brand perception. Yet they remain fragmented across systems and still rely on manual handoffs.

Take card replacement as an example. A single request can involve physical and virtual card issuance, address verification, PIN management, token updates and interactions with external partners such as personalization bureaus. Today, these steps are often disconnected, slowing execution and increasing complexity. Orchestrated end to end, they can enable faster resolution and smoother customer experience.

Another key characteristic of card issuance operations is that they rely on established data-driven workflows. This makes them strong candidates for agent-driven execution, provided banks can coordinate actions across systems, from customer request through to fulfillment. The barrier, however, is not the AI but the environment in which it operates.

Many issuers still rely on architectures not designed for real-time coordination: batch processing, limited interoperability and rigid workflows. As a result, they struggle to trigger actions dynamically or connect execution across systems. This is why many current “AI-powered” capabilities remain limited, layering orchestration on top of legacy systems rather than actually transforming execution.

Building an agentic enterprise requires a different foundation. Before autonomy comes real-time visibility and control: understanding what is happening across data and operations and enabling systems to act on it consistently.

For banks, this leads to a clear priority: transform operations into connected, API-driven processes. APIs enable real-time interaction between systems, make data accessible and allow actions to be executed consistently across environments. They turn static workflows into dynamic execution layers where agents can operate effectively.

Equally important is how control is designed. Execution must follow clear rules, escalation paths and full traceability. Routine actions can be handled by systems, while humans retain authority over higher-risk situations. The objective is not to remove oversight, but to make it more targeted and effective. For sustainable trust and security, all these guardrails need to be in place from the start.

The implication is clear: success with agentic AI will depend less on model sophistication and more on how well banks redesign their operational foundations, not only within their own systems, but across their supplier ecosystem, ensuring seamless connectivity, real-time data flows and well-governed decision-making.

The path forward is not about adding intelligence on top. It is about building operations that intelligence can run.