By Julia Khandoshko, CEO at the European broker Mind Money

The important thing is that in 2026, AI is at the point when it will have to define its mission and compliance with the thesis of its universal applicability, challenging the fact that it can successfully compete with humans in vital decision making. Ten years ago, I was much more optimistic in this respect. Now I am more skeptical that such a broad AI functionality is welcomed and even commonly acceptable. But the spirit is here, definitely, so let’s see how these revolutionary technologies will manage to pave their ways and further integrate into various ad hoc corporate segments. 

Why 2026 May Redefine AI’s Role in Human Decision-Making

Sometimes it seems that by 2026, there will be no serious players left in our industry who wouldn’t have adopted their own solutions or having integrated the solutions of larger fintech players in this area. I think that the foundation laid by the pioneers of AI implementation in various industries will begin to transform dramatically, since using AI becomes a common practice, common requirement of life, a common standard of use in many industries and processes. That said, during 2025, the level of AI implementation have had already grown drastically, so in 2026, this powerful steady momentum will only accelerate. Well, from my perspective, 2027 looks even more disruptive assuming this trend has a good chance to further intensify. In any case, this influx of questions and initiatives about the creation of uniform regulatory and legal standards for the use of AI is very timely.

I believe this rapid pace of AI advancement has become a major concern, for example, in medicine and law, where the creators of artificial intelligence are still highly reluctant to use it in the decision-making area. It seems that investment in this area of AI use will be uneven. In other words, AI as an assistant is acceptable, but not as a mechanism for automated independent decision-making. This means that the industry will have to clearly establish that the final decision is made by a specific person, and that this person is responsible for it.

Why Crypto’s Rise Is Reshaping Access and Cyber Expectations

In addition to becoming an investment target, the crypto industry is increasingly becoming a core of modern technology. What does that mean? The fact that, for example, an access to Apple shares through the purchase of their digital derivatives naturally expands the pool of investors who can invest in this company and its success story from any side and category, is very intriguing and promising. On the other hand, it opens up wide opportunities for arbitrage, automated trading, and other speculative operations for those categories of investors who previously were effectively kept outside. In my view, the third point is that growing digitalisation poses new challenges for cybersecurity, where the cybersecurity developers must act proactively and swiftly.

In this respect, I think the following example would be suitable. Until recently, in order for firms to be respected and broadly accepted, their compliance with new global benchmarks had been all but obligatory. So, following that unwritten rule, many of them articulated and took pride in their commitment to ESG principles. That was both straightforward and rewarding focus. Now, as the age of AI and crypto becoming mainstream, without playing down the importance of the latter, even more demanding differentiation between a high-quality business as opposed to an average one is going to be their commitment to broad comprehensive cybersecurity.

ESG Is Now a Mandate — and AI Is the Engine Driving It Forward

That said, I am far from diminishing the role of ESG standards as a corporate success component. Let’s not forget that ESG is now a regulatory prerogative rather than a branding feature. For example, the reason Corporate Sustainability Directive was recently launched and enforced in Europe, was that banks and fintechs must now disclose their detailed environmental impacts. In this sense, there are many participants that are prioritising such things as carbon footprint tracking for consumer activity or for example, ESG-focused lending practices, as well as carbon credit marketplaces. All these things tell us that the ESG agenda is here with us to stay.

Some prominent fintechs are increasingly using AI to enable real time big data aggregation – something which would normally take months or longer for humans to complete. I think it’s what makes real change, given the fact that this kind of human involvement was very costly for companies until recently, since these complex tasks assumed hiring highly skillful personnel. Another sphere of AI application that looks very well positioned to continue AI integration is corporate cloud infrastructure. Further integration of AI into various cloud based aggregators and corporate office elements is predetermined. I see here a very rapid development and substantial potential of internal investment into this initiatives across the board.

Safe, Scalable, and Here to Stay: The Proven Pillars of AI in Banking

Finally, I wanted to summarise the current scope of AI applications that appear to be safe in corporate use. I see many banks implementing AI tools for the speed of credit scoring and fraud detection. That’s a big thing to begin with. I also think, there is a little question that these practices have already proved to be efficient and will be even more revolutionary and acclaimed going forward.