Why Half of Financial Services AI Projects Fail, According to Inbenta

Financial institutions are learning that deploying artificial intelligence is far simpler than extracting real value from it. While adoption accelerates across the sector, many firms face mounting pressure to demonstrate return on investment, stay compliant with evolving regulations, and manage spiraling technology expenses.

The rush to implement AI has caused some organizations to abandon long-standing procurement and vendor evaluation practices. The technology is proving to be less of a magic solution than many anticipated when they first committed resources to AI initiatives.

Speaking at FinovateFall 2026 in New York, Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta, and Merlin Bise, the company's CTO, addressed why many financial services firms are scaling back or scrapping their AI projects. The executives outlined common deployment mistakes and emphasized that successful implementations require participation from IT teams, compliance officers, and other departments — not just technology groups working in isolation.

"It's amazing how the pressure from AI caused so many people to basically get away of all the disciplines that they normally use, right, to buy products and services or look at vendors, and they threw it out the window because of that pressure," said Solis. "We all thought that AI was a magic wand. You just waved, and we're finding out it's not," she added.

The conversation highlighted the need to pair automation with human judgment. Organizations that treat AI as a complete replacement for employee expertise tend to encounter more problems than those that use the technology to augment existing workflows and decision-making processes.

Solis and Bise also introduced Inbenta's Encore platform, which the company positions as a solution designed to address governance, accuracy, and measurable outcomes — three areas where many AI deployments stumble.

Solis brings over 30 years of leadership experience spanning insurance and technology. She co-founded GIACT Systems, a fraud prevention and risk management provider, and led the company as CEO until Refinitiv acquired it in 2020. During her tenure, GIACT expanded to serve more than 1,000 companies, including multiple Fortune 500 organizations.

Bise serves as Inbenta's CTO, overseeing IT infrastructure and product development for the firm's conversational AI offerings. He has more than 20 years of experience in technology leadership, with a focus on fraud prevention, artificial intelligence, and optical character recognition. Like Solis, he co-founded GIACT Systems and managed technology development for large enterprise clients.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Allen, Texas, Inbenta provides enterprise AI tools for automating customer interactions, enhancing customer experiences, and streamlining operations. The company's Encore platform combines AI orchestration, customer experience capabilities, and live agent support.

Inbenta serves more than 1,000 companies globally and supports interactions in over 90 languages. The platform emphasizes governance and accuracy as organizations seek to move beyond experimentation and deliver measurable business results from AI investments.