By Joe Ehrhardt
Integration is easy. Seamless. A flip of a switch. Blah blah blah… and all the nonsense that every bank vendor says. Anyone who’s lived through a core conversion or tried to connect multiple systems knows that’s rarely true. For years, accessing data across banking systems required massive budgets, months of waiting, and more frustration than progress. Now, improved integration options and more robust APIs have opened new possibilities—just as AI is entering the conversation.
Together, they promise transformation, but they also expose a deeper truth: without strong, well-managed integrations, AI can’t deliver on its potential. AI needs all the data, and integrations need intelligence to become truly useful.
Both are paving the way for banking transformation in the coming years.
Integrations
Without a doubt, integrations are critical, but it’s never as easy as vendors claim. For years, getting access to another system often meant writing an insanely large check and waiting months, if not years. It was such a challenge that entire companies have been created just to solve it.
Now, the pendulum has swung. In just the past two years, integration possibilities with cores, image systems, and third party systems has exploded. We’ve gone from “it’s not possible” to too many options and too many vendors. And with the rise of AI, this complexity has only intensified. AI depends on deep, reliable integrations to learn and act effectively. When those integrations are shallow or limited, even the smartest algorithms will fall short.
In banking, usually it’s just some simple integration that’s more of an illusion. It’s time to change that.
That’s why Teslar has decided to own as much of the integration process as possible and only bring in third parties when it is in the best interest of the client. The way forward requires vendors to take responsibility not just for the pieces they build, but for getting all the pieces connected.
By owning the entire processes and as much of the technology as possible, we’re creating accountability during the entire setup and delivering what is commonplace in other industries, but is rarely seen in action in banking—a fully connected enterprise system.
The Foundation for AI and Automation
This is where AI enters the conversation. Most of what I’ve read about AI in community banking sounds crazy…and mostly it is. There’s a lot of hype suggesting that AI will annihilate community banks, saying there will be no way to compete or keep up. I just don’t see it. In fact, I would say the opposite may be true.
AI excels at many things, but it struggles with empathy, complex math and reasoning, and predicting human behavior (key components of relationship banking). Not to mention projecting the future. Human life is chaotic and human behavior is unpredictable.
Because of that, I cannot see AI replacing truly relationship-focused lenders anytime soon. But it is reshaping the back office that supports it.
If community banks can leverage AI successfully, they will gain a lot of operational and compliance efficiency and strengthen their ability to compete on service, an area where they already win. But what does successful AI look like for a community bank?
AI is really great at pattern recognition, repetitive tasks, a limitless knowledgebase (with training), and processing large amounts of information.
At Teslar, we’re applying those strengths of AI with deep integrations. We’re looking at tasks that require a lot of human interaction and internal touchpoints but are essentially repetitive and pattern-matching.
Of course, AI will only serve your operations well if the underlying data is accessible and reliable.
Connected Intelligence: What’s Next for Community Banks
True transformation in community banking is possible with the combination of true system integration and practical AI applications. Together, they can deliver a fully connected enterprise system within the banking industry.
Through deep integrations and trained AI models, more than half of the daily tasks handled by loan and deposit operations teams could soon be automated. Repetitive processes for lenders and loan assistants can also be streamlined, allowing them to redirect time and attention toward people and relationships. Which is what truly sets community banks apart from the competition.
Within the next year, the way credit administration and operations function in community banks will look dramatically different. The institutions that thrive will be the ones partnering with the tools that will help build a foundation of clean data, deep integrations, and human-centered automation.
About the Author
Joe Ehrhardt is the CEO & Founder of Teslar Software. During his banking career, he has confronted the obstacles that prevent financial institutions from realizing success. With a compelling idea for an exceptions solution and a determination to radically improve the industry, Teslar came into existence. Visit teslarsoftware.com