Temenos shifts focus to embedded AI and modular modernisation at annual conference
Temenos, the core banking software company, announced three major product developments at its annual community forum in Copenhagen this week, signalling a move away from vision-heavy messaging toward production-ready deliverables. The conference, held 5-7 May, drew 1,300 attendees and centred on embedded intelligence across existing products rather than new AI platforms layered on top.
New CEO Takis Spiliopoulos, in his first conference since taking the role permanently in December, framed AI as the primary driver of change in banking. He said the company is now "100% focused on disciplined execution and delivery accountability" because banking requires AI that is "deterministic and predictable" - not generic models applied after the fact.
Three product announcements
Temenos embedded its agentic suite - including co-pilots and a new Conversational Studio - across core banking, digital banking, and its financial crime mitigation solution. The Conversational Studio lets banks design and deploy new customer experiences using natural language, without requiring custom development.
The company also launched composable retail deposits and composable retail lending, designed to let banks modernise specific domains without replacing entire systems. This addresses a real constraint: banks can update one piece rather than overhaul everything at once.
A third announcement expanded Temenos' software-as-a-service offering on Amazon Web Services to include digital banking and payments alongside existing core banking services. This allows customers to mix individual components with end-to-end enterprise services.
Customer wins and operational improvements
Reliance Bank in the UK selected Temenos SaaS across core banking, digital, and payments. Questrade Financial Group in Canada is using the same technology to power Questbank, its new banking entity. First Abu Dhabi Bank expanded its relationship to include core banking, payments, and data hub services on cloud infrastructure.
The 2026 annual maintenance release focused on making operations more predictable and controllable. New features include a Close of Business Observer that lets operations teams check system status without accessing production, and cash pooling capabilities for Islamic banking.
How embedded AI actually works here
Barb Morgan, chief product and technology officer, said the embedded AI approach weaves intelligence into workflows teams already use. "This isn't a new layer," she told attendees. "This is the same platform with intelligence woven into the workflows you already run."
Morgan, who joined from FIS in October 2024, overhauled the company's development model around a design partner programme. The team works with selected clients in 90-day sprints that produce production-ready outcomes, with customer adoption from day one.
Sairam Rangachari, chief product officer and head of AI strategy, described four concrete investments supporting the embedded approach: a banking knowledge graph, conversational interfaces, a Model Context Protocol (MCP) that connects systems without custom integrations, and an agentic framework.
AI with guardrails built in
Rangachari emphasised three non-negotiable requirements for the company's AI work: explainability, auditability, and governance. Agents operate in three modes - listen, advisory, and action - with the bank always in control.
On modernisation timelines, Rangachari was direct. Temenos can stand up sandbox environments in "two days, three days, one week", but production deployments take longer because banks face complexity in tribal knowledge and rewiring connectivity. A bank deployment could take a year.
The design partner programme started with 200 interested clients but narrowed to about 40 selected for commitment and willingness to dedicate resources.
The shift from debate to execution
The conference sketched a practical path forward: intelligence embedded into existing products, modular entry points in retail deposits and lending, and broader SaaS options. Leadership emphasised trust, disciplined execution, and governance, with agents that remain explainable and keep humans in control.
Customer moves and operational improvements point to a shift in banking from debating whether to modernise to working out how.
For product development professionals, the relevance is clear: AI for Product Development increasingly means embedding intelligence into existing workflows rather than building separate AI layers, and Generative AI and LLM capabilities are moving from research projects to production systems with explicit governance.
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