Customers are turning to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to find the right banking product, bypassing search engines and comparison sites. As a result, a product’s success depends on two things: its quality and its “AI readability”. Discover what this means for banks and which steps to take now.
“Which securities account is best suited for building long-term wealth?”
“Should I keep my money in a savings account for now or invest it?”
“Which bank offers the best combination of digital service and personal advice?”
Only a few years ago, people would typically have researched questions like these on search engines, looked for answers on comparison sites, or raised them with their bank advisor. Today, a growing number of consumers ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or other AI assistants instead.
Within seconds, they receive clearly structured answers, comparisons across providers, and concrete recommendations tailored to their individual circumstances. This changes how financial products are perceived, compared, and ultimately chosen.
This development is no longer limited to a few product categories. For many financial decisions, from checking and securities accounts to wealth management, loans, and savings, AI systems are now where customers turn first.
The change is particularly visible in checking accounts. Customers use AI assistants for more than traditional product comparisons. They also rely on them to assess new pricing and service models from their primary bank. When their bank asks them to consent to a new account model, for example, customers photograph the letter, attach it to a prompt, and ask the AI for an assessment of the new offer.
For banks, this is the beginning of a new era. The quality of a product alone no longer determines its success. What matters just as much is how clearly and convincingly its value comes across in an AI-supported customer journey.
From search results to AI recommendations
For years, banks invested significant resources in search engine optimization, online marketing, and their presence on comparison sites. The goal was to be as visible as possible when customers actively searched for products.
With the rise of generative AI, this mechanism is shifting. Customers now receive a recommendation directly, without having to click through multiple websites.
Take a customer who asks:
“I’m 35, I mainly use online banking, but I occasionally need personal advice. Which account is right for me?”
An AI system does more than evaluate individual prices or product features. It builds a complete picture of costs, range of services, digital offering, quality of advice, and customer service, all in relation to the customer’s specific situation.
This places a new requirement on banks: products must appeal to people and, at the same time, be easy for AI systems to understand and compare.
The new challenge: The AI readability of products
Many financial products have evolved over the years. Different pricing components, complex service bundles, and legacy product structures complicate customer communication today.
For AI systems, the problem becomes even more acute. Relevant information is frequently spread across multiple web pages, hidden in price lists, or available only as PDF documents. Products are also often described inconsistently or lack a clear focus on specific customer segments.
The result is a new kind of competitive risk. However competitively priced and customer-centric a product may be, if AI systems cannot clearly identify its advantages, it risks losing out to comparable offers in recommendations.
The key question is therefore no longer just:
“Is our product competitive?”
More importantly:
“Can an AI-generated recommendation identify our product’s value at all and represent it accurately?”
AI visibility as a new dimension of product and sales strategy
Generative AI is changing how banks need to design their products and communication. Alongside price, features, and profitability, a new question is coming to the fore: How visible are our offerings to AI systems? To answer this question, banks need to understand what information about their products is publicly available, how that information is structured, and what role it plays when customers use AI assistants.
This is exactly what we are working on at Simon-Kucher and Simon-Kucher Elevate. While Simon-Kucher has supported banks in developing competitive pricing and product strategies for many years, Simon-Kucher Elevate examines how new technologies affect sales, customer experience, and digital visibility.
Bringing both perspectives together sheds new light on the future of banking: a product can only reach its full potential if its benefits are equally clear to customers and to the digital tools that guide their decisions.
What steps banks should take now
Even though the impact of generative AI on the sale of financial products is only beginning to unfold, banks should already start looking at their products and communication strategies from the perspective of a customer who relies on AI.
Simplify products and position them clearly: The clearer the pricing structures and value propositions, the more easily customers and AI systems can grasp their benefits.
Provide structured product information: Many banks already offer high-quality products, but their advantages are scattered across different channels. Going forward, the key will be to provide information that is consistent, transparent, and easy to find.
Test AI perception regularly: Banks need to analyze on an ongoing basis how AI systems describe and assess their products. Initial tests often deliver surprising insights into which strengths are recognized and which unique selling points have so far remained largely invisible.
Communicate strengths in concrete terms: Personal advice, local presence, and community networks remain strong differentiators. What matters, however, is translating these advantages into clear customer benefits that people understand even outside a traditional advisory meeting.
Looking ahead
The use of AI assistants will continue to grow in the coming years. For many customers, they will become the default first stop for financial decisions.
Banks therefore need to look beyond which products they offer and ask how AI systems perceive and evaluate them.
The winners will be the banks that combine strong products with clear, transparent, and digitally optimized communication. The goal is to spell out the real customer benefit so precisely that AI systems can recognize it too.
In a world where AI assistants are taking on the role of a digital banking advisor, success will not depend on having the best product alone, but on the ability to make its value visible.
Would you like to find out how AI systems currently perceive your products? Contact our experts.
