As KeyBank continues migrating its systems to the cloud, it has begun to see results. The Cleveland-based bank fully transitioned its contact center to UJET’s Google Cloud–based CCaaS platform, retiring multiple legacy systems. The move led to a 15% decrease in agent call volumes, a 50% increase in digital chat volumes, and a 10% reduction in costs. “We’re rolling out new capabilities that our contact center teammates are loving … it’s going to simplify the role for our teammates, and when we do that we ultimately are going to deliver a better experience for our clients,” said Jordan Olack, director of intelligent automation and contact center. Cloud adoption is accelerating across the industry: Capital One has operated fully on AWS since 2021, JPMorgan Chase partnered with Thought Machine, Wells Fargo opted for a dual-cloud strategy, and Citi announced in 2024 it would migrate some apps to Google Cloud. KeyBank began its own transition in 2019, later expanding to infrastructure in 2022, with the UJET migration spanning May 2023 to October 2024. “We’re actually going right to the source … We are a strategic partner of UJET, and we’ve made equity investments as a bank into UJET as well,” Olack said. “We’ve never thought of them as a ‘legacy bank,’ but rather as an established leader who was looking for a technology partner that could match their ambition,” said UJET CEO Vasili Triant. He added: “Bridging the gap between on-premise procedures and a cloud-native mindset required a highly collaborative and conversational process.” Dylan Lerner, senior analyst at Javelin Strategy, emphasized that cloud transformation is gradual: “Banks rarely go all-in on cloud technology … A piecemeal approach is easier to manage and gives the financial institution time to adjust.” At Cenlar, AI is being applied to reshape mortgage servicing. EVP and COO Leslie Peeler said her IBM experience showed how AI could compress weeks of work into minutes: “That really informed my thinking around how AI could be disruptive beyond smaller point solutions by stringing things together.” “There’s a lot of cost opportunity, certainly, to use AI and generative AI to take cost out of servicing,” Peeler noted, citing chatbot pilots that sped up homeowner responses. Cenlar, which services over 2 million loans, partnered with PhoenixTeam on AI compliance tools: “The process … takes that from a five- to six-week effort down to one to two days.” She stressed that servicing can now rival origination in technology focus: “I don’t think servicing needs to take a back seat.” Cenlar is also launching a “value network” giving managers cockpit-style visibility. “It’s the equivalent of moving from a lack of visibility to what’s under the water to complete visibility,” Peeler said.