Few would dispute the idea that artificial intelligence will be a transformative technology for financial services. Yet the view of how that transformation will shake out may be evolving significantly. A report from Deloitte and the World Economic Forum contends that in the near future, technology expertise will grow so commonly available that raw AI and multiple technologies built around that hub will not be what separates the winners from the other players. Instead, as envisioned by the report, the transformative technologies that excite so many today will become as basic to the industry as the longstanding payments rails they all share today. What institutions do with that transformative technology will mean much more and that will hinge on some surprisingly basic ideas.

AI will fuel'self-driving finance' The combination of open banking and AI will put customers in a "self-directed mindset" going forward, Galaski said. Those that can provide the most AI-based self-help will have a strong competitive advantage. The ability to tap into both financial and nonfinancial data will be important here, McWaters said. "In exactly the same way that you wouldn't expect an adviser to be able to make good financial decisions for you knowing only the contents of your personal balance sheet, an AI requires an understanding of preferences, locations and behaviors that exist well outside the realm of purely payments and deposits," McWaters said. "So if you want to have recommendations that are truly individualized, that's going to require the input of data from outside of the historical data of traditional financial institutions."