Backbase acquires Kasisto to embed agentic AI at the core of its Banking OS

Backbase has acquired Kasisto, a specialist in agentic AI for banking and financial services, folding the company's agentic platform, financial services intelligence, and New York-based team into its AI-native Banking OS. The combined Agentic Banking suite is available immediately through the Banking OS to all current and future customers, according to Backbase.

The acquisition addresses a problem that has held back agentic AI adoption across the sector. Most banks have deployed such systems in isolated pockets, running agents that answer questions without resolving the underlying work, which leaves customer intent fragmented across channels, contact centres, and operations teams. Closing that gap requires purpose-built banking intelligence, reasoning-native agents, and governance embedded from the outset rather than generic AI platforms retrofitted for regulated environments.

Banks are moving from agents that answer questions to agents that resolve work

The strategic logic centres on what Backbase calls the Unified Frontline, an operating model in which customers, employees, and AI agents work with shared context, governed authority, and a single source of customer truth. With Kasisto embedded at the core of the Banking OS, banks can resolve customer intent through governed, intelligent execution rather than routing queries between disconnected systems. Many customer needs still break down between digital self-service, contact centres, servicing teams, and back-office operations, and the combined capability is designed to carry intent through to completion by collecting evidence, checking eligibility, applying policy, triggering workflows, and resolving the request end to end.

Kasisto's agentic platform is built on reasoning-native AI, meaning agents that understand context, apply judgement, and act within banking-specific governance and compliance controls. Paired with the Banking OS, banks can deploy agents that handle the full arc from customer intent to governed resolution across conversational surfaces including chat, messaging, and voice. The model also extends to proactive, compliant outbound engagement, allowing banks to address customer needs before they surface as inbound service demand.

The deal strengthens Backbase in its largest growth market

For Backbase, the acquisition is as much about geography as capability. The transaction unites complementary agentic AI capabilities, established customer bases across North America, and specialist teams, reinforcing the company's position in the US, its largest strategic growth market. Kasisto's New York base and existing client relationships give Backbase deeper reach in a market where competition for banking technology contracts has intensified.

Jouk Pleiter, CEO and Founder at Backbase, said, "This acquisition sharpens our position as the strategic partner for banks serious about AI transformation. Kasisto brings proven agentic AI and deep financial services intelligence - moving us decisively into the era where customers express intent naturally and the bank resolves it through governed, intelligent execution. With Kasisto inside the Banking OS, no one is better positioned to lead the shift from conversation to resolution."

Lance Berks, CEO at Kasisto, said, "Agentic AI will reshape banking over the next decade. Together, Backbase and Kasisto represent the convergence of the AI-native banking OS and purpose-built agentic AI and financial services intelligence, setting a new standard for how banks and financial institutions compete and win."

The deal points to where enterprise AI is heading in regulated banking, where the test is no longer whether a conversational agent can respond but whether it can be trusted to act, with governance and auditability treated as prerequisites rather than afterthoughts. Backbase, founded in 2003 and headquartered in Amsterdam, counts more than 120 banks as customers across retail, SMB and commercial, private banking, and wealth management, giving the acquired technology a substantial installed base to move into.