Backbase buys Kasisto, folding one of conversational banking's originals into 'agentic banking'
Backbase has acquired Kasisto, an SRI International spin-out and one of the longest-running names in conversational AI for banking, folding its agentic platform into the 'AI-native Banking OS'.
Backbase, the Dutch banking-software firm, has acquired Kasisto, one of the longest-running names in conversational AI for financial services. Kasisto's agentic platform, its banking-specific models, and its New York-based team move into Backbase's "AI-native Banking OS." Terms were not disclosed.
From chatbots to agents
Kasisto is a conversational-AI veteran. Founded in 2013, it spun out of SRI International - the lab behind Siri - and spent more than a decade building KAI, a virtual assistant deployed at banks including DBS, Standard Chartered and TD. More recently it repositioned around "agentic" AI and its own financial-domain model, KAI-GPT. That arc - from scripted assistant, to LLM-backed chatbot, to action-taking agent - is essentially the story of the whole category, which is what makes the deal worth more than a line in the M&A column.
Backbase's pitch
Backbase's framing is that most banks have so far deployed agentic AI "in isolated pockets - agents that answer questions without resolving work." Its answer is what it calls a "Unified Frontline," where customers, employees and AI agents share the same context and the same source of customer truth. Folding Kasisto in at the core, the company says, lets banks resolve customer intent through governed, intelligent execution, with the combined Agentic Banking suite available immediately to existing and future customers.
CEO and founder Jouk Pleiter said the deal "sharpens our position as the strategic partner for banks serious about AI transformation." Kasisto CEO Lance Berks said the two firms "represent the convergence of the AI-native banking OS and purpose-built agentic AI."
The read for CX teams
Two things stand out. First, consolidation: independent conversational-AI specialists in banking are increasingly being absorbed into larger platform players, where the assistant becomes a feature of the core rather than a standalone product. Second, language: nobody is selling "chatbots" any more. The pitch has moved wholesale to agents that resolve work, not just answer questions - and the governance and compliance wrapper is now the headline feature, not an afterthought. For anyone running customer operations in a regulated business, that second shift is the one to watch.
Based on Backbase's press release, 23 June 2026.
This article was produced with editorial assistance from EDDIE and MARVIN, AI tools used by the Conversational AI News team.
