Large language models (LLMs) are no longer static chatbots. With memory and advanced reasoning, AI can now guide users through complex processes—shopping, booking, banking—without leaving the AI interface. The major platforms are moving fast. Microsoft has integrated a merchant programme into Copilot, enabling purchases directly through AI. Meanwhile, OpenAI is piloting a collaboration with Shopify to offer a similar experience within ChatGPT. According to research published in Future CIO in 2024, 92% of consumers in Southeast Asia rely on AI for personalised recommendations, 90% for product summaries and more than half now integrate AI tools into their daily lives. The next wave of commerce and services will not occur on websites or apps, but within AI ecosystems. For banks, this marks a radical shift. AI will become the main channel through which consumers interact with financial products—learning about banking products, opening accounts, or initiating payments. Closing the knowledge gap: The case for MCPs LLMs have one major flaw: they can only offer advice based on their last training cycle. Application programming interfaces (APIs), services and product features evolve too quickly for static models to stay current. Model Context Platforms (MCPs) offer a solution. Developed by Anthropic, a leading competitor to OpenAI, MCPs were launched in late 2024 as an open-source standard available to any AI application. An MCP acts as a live, structured gateway between a company’s dynamic APIs and external AI models. Rather than retraining AIs every time a feature changes, MCPs allow instant access to updated product and service information. Think of an MCP as a plug-in for AI: a real-time download of a bank’s product catalogue and operational capabilities. Without one, banks risk being misunderstood, outdated or overlooked by the AI agents now steering customer decisions. Emerging use cases for banks Banks that invest early in MCPs will open the door to new services: AI-driven commerce: Enable purchases via open banking APIs, embedding spending controls or loyalty benefits directly in the AI layer. Hyper-personalised advice: Provide AIs with current product information, ensuring personalised and relevant recommendations. Account interactions and transactions: Allow AIs to securely access balances, verify accounts, or initiate payments. Niche product discovery: Help AIs surface specialist products tailored to a user’s financial history, such as freelancer-focused accounts. In short, MCPs will make banks’ services “AI-ready”, ensuring they are surfaced, recommended and acted upon within the AI-first consumer landscape. Hyper-personalisation demands radical transparency Persistent AI memories will allow unprecedented hyper-personalisation. AIs will know spending habits, savings goals and lifestyle preferences. But transparency will become vital. AIs will scrutinise terms and conditions, detect hidden fees and filter out gimmicky offers. Banks with opaque products will not just face consumer complaints—they risk systematic blacklisting by consumer AIs. Future-ready banks will need to develop niche, authentic financial products with tangible, clear benefits. Just as importantly, they must embrace radical transparency, offering product disclosures that AIs can easily validate. New competitive arena Banks have invested heavily in AI to boost operational efficiency and customer service. But the next battleground lies not within internal systems, but on the open ground of AI-driven consumer interfaces. Building a Model Context Platform is no longer optional. It is the foundation for participating in the next decade of financial services—where a customer’s most important financial adviser will be their AI assistant, and that assistant will only trust banks that speak its language. Financial institutions must move swiftly to establish MCPs, create developer-friendly APIs and design products with transparency and personalisation at their core. First movers will become the default choices surfaced by AI; laggards risk fading into invisibility. Dom Monhardt is the founder of one-fs.com, a leading fintech and digital banking newsletter in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
