Virtual assistants aren’t providing the boost in customer satisfaction that they once did, according to analysis across the firm’s banking and credit card mobile app studies. The average percentage of responding consumers who used a virtual assistant actually fell from 33% to 30%. The average overall satisfaction among consumers who used a virtual assistant also fell, from 691 to 687. Sean Gelles, senior director of banking and payments intelligence, believes the reason behind these declines goes beyond the virtual assistants themselves, which major institutions have been developing continuously. He points to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI and other GenAI tools. Virtual assistants have been looked to as the next step up. But consumers are getting used to more versatile GenAI assistants like ChatGPT and Copilot. He believes things are getting to the point where virtual assistants that were good — or good enough — in the past are not as much of a differentiator anymore. J.D. Power’s analysis found that customer satisfaction with apps and sites has been improving, but chiefly because of increased speed and other technical enhancements. Gelles says institutions have to begin assessing what’s missing from their digital experiences in general, as well as how GenAI could potentially improve their offerings. Overall, ease of use of digital channels remains a sticking point for customer satisfaction, according to Gelles. He says the average across the studies for users saying that they find the tools easy to use is only 28%. In a financial context, instead of presenting static choices, Gelles says, financial players could personalize things from the get-go, drawing on what services the consumer has tapped before.
Microsoft’s new family of 4D geometric codes require very few physical qubits, can check for errors in a single shot, and exhibit a 1,000-fold reduction in quantum error rates
Microsoft Quantum is advancing the global quantum ecosystem by developing powerful error-correction codes for various types of qubits. These codes require very few physical qubits per logical qubit, can check for errors in a single shot, and exhibit a 1,000-fold reduction in error rates. Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization system, a core component of the Microsoft Quantum compute platform, enables the creation and entanglement of reliable logical qubits from high-quality physical qubits. Microsoft’s new 4D geometric codes require very few physical qubits to make each logical qubit, have efficient logical operations, and improve the performance of quantum hardware. This family of codes reduces the number of steps required to diagnose errors, resulting in low-depth operations and computations. Incorporation of these codes into the Microsoft Quantum compute platform will enable the creation and entanglement of 50 logical qubits in the near term, with the potential to scale to thousands of logical qubits in the future. Microsoft is bringing the capabilities for quantum advantage forward by coupling state-of-the-art quantum hardware with the Microsoft Quantum compute platform, which includes error correction, cloud high-performance computing, and advanced AI models. Microsoft’s team of experts is available to provide insight and technical expertise on use cases, industry challenges, and opportunities for innovation and collaborative research projects. Microsoft and Atom Computing have co-designed a pairing of neutral-atom qubits with the Microsoft Quantum compute platform, offering extensive scalability, low susceptibility to noise, and high fidelities needed for quantum error correction. The most groundbreaking use cases of quantum computing are likely to be achieved when quantum is used to improve and accelerate other technologies, such as high-performance computing and AI.
Fiserv to launch digital asset platform that includes a new interoperable stablecoin FIUSD and integrate it with its banking and payments infrastructure; support partners are Circle, Paxos, Solana and Mastercard; PayPal aims for FIUSD and PYUSD interoperability
Payments and financial services technology provider Fiserv is entering the stablecoin business. The company plans to launch a digital asset platform that includes a new stablecoin (FIUSD) that will be added to Fiserv’s banking and payments infrastructure by the year’s end. The platform will help the firm’s regional and community bank clients embrace stablecoins’ entry into the traditional finance space. FIUSD presents Fiserv customers with access to a new, more efficient and interoperable digital asset service for their banking and payment flows. Offering the coin across Fiserv’s network, which includes relationships with roughly 10,000 financial institutions and 6 million merchant locations worldwide, will “provide instant scale for FIUSD while creating a digital asset network that clients can use to build new products and services.” Fiserv intends to use stablecoin infrastructure from Paxos and Circle with the goal of making it interoperable with several stablecoins, and it will be available to Fiserv clients through the Solana blockchain. In addition, the company is exploring the use of deposit tokens to maintain the benefits of stablecoins in a more capital-friendly structure for banks. Fiserv Chief Operating Officer Takis Georgakopoulos said that the new effort will help “democratize access” in the stablecoin market. By offering FIUSD across Mastercard’s global payments network, people and businesses can use the new programmable blockchain-based token across more than 150 million merchants. Fiserv and Paypal are partnering to build future interoperability between FIUSD and PayPal USD (PYUSD), to allow consumers and businesses to move funds domestically and internationally. These moves, would add drastic scale, opening stablecoins to thousands of financial institutions and PayPal’s base of more than 430 million consumers and 36 million merchants. It also joins a fast-growing market of stablecoin issuers that includes a consortium of large banks, major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart and early mover banks such as Societe Generale and Vantage Bank.
Citi’s survey of asset managers cites ongoing industry challenges as new inflows going to mega players, the rise of passive funds, accelerating fee compression, and rising costs as key challenges; the democratization of private markets to drive organic growth
Citi Investor Services and CREATE-Research have released findings from a new report, offering a comprehensive view of the structural shifts reshaping the global asset management industry. Comprising Custody, Fund Services and Execution Services, Citi Investor Services supports the entire investment lifecycle for its clients, including asset managers. The report draws upon insights from 269 asset managers across public and private markets from 26 markets, managing a total of US$37.7 trillion in Assets under Management. Respondents were polled from March to June 2025. Featuring also 30 interviews with senior executives from a cross-section of survey respondents, the report highlights how the industry is in the midst of a reset, and what asset managers perceive as winning business models for the future. Primary findings include:
- Ongoing industry challenges are coinciding with new opportunities: More than half of respondents cited new inflows going to mega players, the rise of passive funds, accelerating fee compression, and rising costs as key challenges.
- At the same time, new inter-linked growth drivers are emerging. 67% of respondents believe that the democratization of private markets will drive organic growth in their businesses over the next three years; 61% cited the advancement of AI and GenAI, and 59% said intergenerational wealth transfer from Baby Boomers will contribute to their growth.
- Small step, not big leaps, mark the rise of AI and Gen AI: While AI and GenAI are expected to reshape operating models, the adoption rate is moderate, with 41% of respondents at the implementation phase of AI, and 26% at the same phase for GenAI. That said, a majority of respondents believe that AI and Gen AI will significantly impact investment processes, although legacy systems and concerns around data quality, security and transparency remain key barriers.
- Winning business models will combine the best of old and new: Successful business models will blend traditional and new approaches with an emphasis on client-centricity, such as tech-assisted personalized portfolios, performance-based fees and outcome-oriented investing.
- Distribution channels and platforms, in particular, are expected to see a marked departure from the status quo. 67% of respondents selected democratized access to private markets as a key feature of a winning business model, and 56% cited diverse investment strategies at point of sale. Close to half or 49% called out Direct-to-Consumer access and channels.
- Outsourcing is linked with organic growth at lower costs: What started as a cost-cutting tactic is morphing into a strategic imperative with outsourcing creating tangible benefits on both the bottom line and organic growth. 59% of respondents noted the reduction of unit costs from outsourcing, and 57% acknowledged that it allows top executives to focus on core competencies.
- The report further suggests industry service providers will need to advance and develop state-of-the art capabilities and innovate across front, middle, and back-office functions as asset managers continue to outsource in these areas and prioritize core competencies in-house.
- Investors’ goals will not change but their means will: To deliver competitive differentiation and remain relevant in the changing landscape, asset managers, particularly small and medium-sized ones will evolve their delivery. 66% are focused on becoming their clients’ trusted advisors, and 61% are investing in talent and expertise. On distribution, partnering with asset gatherers was a top priority.
Goldman Sachs, Citi and TIAA back Conquest Planning’s AI platform that allows advisors to accurately understand the impact of different scenarios on clients’ goals and recommend the next best decision
Conquest Planning, a technology platform modernizing financial planning with customized and convenient advice, today announced it has raised $80 million USD ($110 million CAD) in Series B funding led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. The round attracted additional new investors, including Canapi Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early to growth-stage software and fintech companies, as well as BDC Capital, Citi Ventures, TIAA Ventures and USAA. Existing investors BNY and Portage also participated in the round, which brings Conquest’s total funding to over $100 million USD. Conquest will leverage this fresh capital to accelerate its U.S. expansion, while also funding the continued evolution of its AI-based Strategic Advice Manager (SAM). SAM’s revolutionary AI planning engine performs thousands of complex calculations around every piece of information in an individual’s financial plan, which allows advisors and their clients to quickly and accurately understand the impact of different scenarios on clients’ goals and recommend the next best financial decision. Conquest will continue to invest in its technology to support more robust plan analysis, enable more efficient onboarding and plan creation and create tools and modules that lead to dynamic content creation. Conquest’s new offering, dubbed SAM Bytes, enables advisors to remain engaged with self-directed investors during these planning moments to foster a sustained relationship built on trust.
Morgan Stanley targets founders with new designation- about 200 advisors will take on a “founders specialist designation,” signaling their expertise in taking a long-standing private company public
As more companies stay private longer without selling shares on public markets, their founders and chief executives have developed a distinct set of financial needs. Morgan Stanley has a new designation for advisors it deems specially qualified to work with this group of current and potential clients. About 200 of the firm’s roughly 15,000 advisors will take on a “founders specialist designation,” signaling their expertise in helping clients do everything from starting a company or taking a long-standing private company public to setting up systems to pay employees with company shares and provide other benefits. The designation comes as part of Morgan Stanley’s campaign to build its wealth business through its Morgan Stanley at Work division, which provides services like setting up equity-compensation plans for employers. Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick has previously estimated that as much as $5 trillion in client assets could be brought in through the workplace unit. At a recent annual conference, he said that $300 billion in assets has come down the firm’s “funnel” to financial advisors from Morgan Stanley at Work in the past five years. Similarly, Vince Lumia — the head of client segments at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management — wrote in a memo that the firm’s advisors are often company founders’ gateway to the broader financial services the firm offers, including investment banking. The founders specialist designation is for advisors who can help with not only planning for a business but also for the personal financial needs of company owners and their employees. “This designation formally recognizes advisors who have a successful track record in working to address the unique wealth management needs of founders and private market executives,” Lumia wrote. “This is a client segment that illustrates the power of the Integrated Firm like no other. Whether they seek professional financial guidance, workplace benefits, investment banking, [foreign currency exchange] or corporate cash, we have a distinct strategic advantage in our ability to serve them.” Morgan Stanley’s new designation comes amid a long-running decline in the number of U.S. companies whose shares can be bought and sold on public markets. Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business reported in September that the number of U.S. publicly traded companies fell from more than 7,000 to fewer than 4,000 from 1996 to 2020, even as the number of public companies has risen in other parts of the world. (Tuck said the culprit was not only a decline in firms’ selling stock for the first time through initial public offerings but also a steady stream of mergers among publicly traded companies.)
Goldman Sachs expands availability of AI Assistant across firm meant for “summarizing complex documents and drafting initial content to performing data analysis”
Goldman Sachs announced a firmwide launch of an artificial intelligence assistant, a tool driven by generative AI, to boost productivity. Around 10,000 employees at the bank are already using the GS AI Assistant. With the AI tool’s official company-wide launch, Goldman joins a long list of big banks already leveraging the technology to shape their operations in a targeted manner and help employees in day-to-day tasks. Citigroup has AI tools such as Citi Assist, which searches internal bank policies and procedures, as well as Citi Stylus, which helps with document summarizing and comparisons. Morgan Stanley has a chatbot that helps financial advisors in interactions with clients, while Bank of America’s virtual assistant, Erica, focuses on day-to-day transactions of retail clients. The GS AI assistant will help Goldman employees in “summarizing complex documents and drafting initial content to performing data analysis.” Goldman Sachs Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti told CNBC in January that the AI assistant would initially produce answers based on bank data that has been fed into AI models and then would absorb the company’s culture in the years to come.
Wealthfront plans IPO amid warmer environment for fintechs- is a pioneer in using automation to build low-cost investment portfolios, now with AI incorporated
Wealth management platform Wealthfront is reportedly the latest FinTech planning to go public. The company has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the U.S. The report noted that Wealthfront’s planned IPO follows its rival Chime, which went public earlier this month, raising $684 million and indicating a thaw for FinTech listings. Two other FinTechs, Klarna and Plaid, are also preparing for IPOs. Wealthfront is known for its automated investing tools and an online platform popular with younger customers, along with banking services such as savings accounts. UBS tried to purchase the company to bolster its high-net-worth customer base, but called off the deal in 2022. Wealthfront, founded in 2008 by Andy Rachleff and Dan Carroll, provides automated tools such as cash accounts, ETF and bond investing, trading as well as low-cost loans to its clients.
The company, a pioneer in using automation to build low-cost investment portfolios, has incorporated elements of artificial intelligence into its financial planning software.
Issuing deposit tokens that are fully insured, backed by fiat deposits and remain on-balance-sheet can help banks fend off deposit displacement threat from branded stablecoins of tech-native startups and retailers
Stablecoins could divert significant transaction volume and core deposits away from banks as retailers, fintechs, and Big Techs issue branded stablecoins that lead consumers to move cash into them for convenience, rewards, or programmability. This scenario could result in stablecoins becoming functional equivalents of bank deposits without the FDIC insurance, relationship ties, or regulatory protections banks provide. Deposit displacement has been happening for years, with $2.15 trillion leaving banks for fintech investment accounts, 65% of which has come from Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. JPMorgan is initially designed for institutional clients and will be issued on Coinbase’s Base blockchain, targeting on-chain settlements and cross-border B2B transfers. JPMorgan’s blockchain arm, Kinexys, markets it as a “deposit token”—a fully insured, interest-bearing digital representation of bank deposits—making it easy to reconcile with existing banking operations. By issuing tokenized bank money instead of a traditional stablecoin, JPMorgan safeguards its deposit base, ensuring it remains on-balance-sheet and insured. The GENIUS Act provides banks with regulatory clarity, defense against shadow banking, new revenue channels, and increased oversight from prudential regulators, SEC, FinCEN, and the Federal Reserve. Banks should prepare by defining a strategic position, identifying relevant use cases, investing in infrastructure, educating the board and C-suite, partnering with fintechs, blockchain infrastructure firms, or consortiums, and advocating for smart regulation. They must weigh the trade-offs between the opportunity to innovate versus the risk of disintermediation, as the cost of inaction may not be reputational but may be financial erosion as tech-native alternatives capture consumer funds.
Studies show using RAG with LLMs increases “unsafe” outputs such as misinformation, create a gateway through firewalls allowing for data leakage and experience significant decline in accuracy as tasks became more complex
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), a method used by generative AI tools like Open AI’s ChatGP, is becoming a cornerstone for genAI tools, providing implementation flexibility, enhanced explainability, and composability with Large Language Models (LLMs). However, recent research suggests that RAG may be making genAI models less safe and reliable. Alan Nichol, CTO at Rasa, criticized RAG as “just a buzzword” and called it “just a buzzword” that just means adding a loop around large language models” and data retrieval. Two studies by Bloomberg and The Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) found that using RAG with large language models (LLMs) can reduce their safety, even when both the LLMs and the documents it accesses are sound. Both studies found that “unsafe” outputs such as misinformation or privacy risks increased under RAG. RAG needs strong guardrails and researchers actively trying to find flaws, vulnerabilities, or weaknesses in a system, often by thinking like an adversary. To fully unlock RAG’s potential, enterprises need to include fragmented structured data, such as customer information, to fully unlock its potential. RAG can also create a gateway through firewalls, allowing for data leakage, and security and data governance become critical with RAG architecture. Apple’s research paper on Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) found that as tasks became more complex, both standard LLMs and LRMs experienced a significant decline in accuracy, reaching near-zero performance.