Registration

Opening Remarks

Can Your Core Keep Up? Infrastructure for the Agentic Era

• Big-bang replacement is giving way to sidecar and strangler-fig models. Which Gulf banks are running dual cores and what are they learning?
• AI agents and embedded platforms need real-time event-driven responses. Can a wrapped legacy core deliver that, or is it a ceiling?
• Progressive modernisation sounds safer but takes years. How do banks maintain competitive pace while migrating piece by piece?
• The market is moving toward composable, cloud-native architecture. What should a CIO prioritise when evaluating a core partner?

Lightbulb Moments

The AI Gap: Why Pilots Aren't Becoming Production

• Most AI pilots never reach production. Where do banks most often underestimate the effort required to move from pilot to production?
• AI in credit decisioning means algorithms saying no to customers. What governance frameworks can stand up to regulator scrutiny?
• Where is AI delivering measurable ROI in production today — and what conditions made those deployments possible?
• The Gulf faces an acute shortage of data engineers and ML specialists. Build internally, outsource, or partner with fintechs?

Lightbulb Moments

Networking Break

The Invisible Bank: When Your Product Lives on Someone Else's Platform

• When a retailer offers lending at checkout using your balance sheet, who owns the customer — the platform or the bank?
• Super apps are embedding payments, credit and insurance into daily transactions. What revenue still belongs to the bank?
• Some banks are choosing to become infrastructure providers. Is Banking-as-a-Service a growth strategy or a race to the bottom?
• If banking becomes invisible, brand disappears with it. How does a bank build loyalty when the customer never sees them?

Lightbulb Moments

When the Customer Has the AI: Agentic Banking and the End of Inertia

• AI agents can already move deposits between banks based on yield. What happens to funding costs when customer inertia disappears?
• If an AI agent selects products on price and speed alone, what levers does a bank have left to defend its customer relationships?
• Banks are building their own automated agents while customers deploy competing ones. Who controls the interaction — and who sets the rules?
• Regulators haven't caught up with autonomous financial decisions. Who is liable when an AI agent moves money the customer didn't expect?

Lightbulb Moments

When the Attacker Has AI Too: Fraud, Deepfakes and the New Arms Race

• Fraud has been industrialised. Deepfake toolkits are now sold with customer support. How do banks defend against factory-scale attacks?
• A deepfake video call cost one company $25 million. When you can no longer trust what you see or hear, what verification still works?
• Customers are sending AI agents to transact on their behalf. How does a bank tell a legitimate agent from a hostile one?
• Attackers use AI to probe defences at machine speed. Are banks structured to respond at the same pace — or still operating in human time?

Closing Remarks

VIP Networking Lunch