It’s that time of year. The temperature is finally dropping in Austin, my cozy sweatshirts are achieving their life’s purpose, and every technology sector is looking into their crystal ball to predict what market-moving trends will drive change in 2026.

At Red Fan, we make it our business to understand the industries our clients navigate every day. Whether we’re advising a bank on its stablecoin communications strategy or helping a software and data provider articulate its AI vision in the health care industry, we can’t craft effective communications without understanding the broader technology landscape.

Our deep dive into industry intelligence fuels how we spot emerging narratives before they become mainstream, identify white space for our clients’ thought leadership, and anticipate the questions journalists will be asking six months from now. When Celent’s Banking & Payments Technology Trends Previsory, Finovate’s “Fintech at the Crossroads” analysis, and Javelin’s 2026 trends reports converged on my desk over the last month, the patterns jumped off the pages.

What struck me wasn’t just what these reports mean for financial services—it’s how these shifts represent change for consumer and business buying habits. Over the last 10 years, I’ve watched the trends emerging from fintech become the business imperatives across all sectors. Here’s what caught my attention, and why it should matter to you, regardless of your industry.

 

Agentic AI: The Next Frontier of Commerce

Celent’s research examines how agentic commerce—where agents act on a user’s behalf to research, compare, negotiate and purchase products or services—will transform the way customers shop and pay. The implication for payment providers and e-commerce businesses is a hefty enough topic to explore. For financial institutions and other fintechs, this shift demands a delicate balance between efficiency, security and, perhaps most importantly, trust. Trust is paramount when AI is making financial decisions or recommendations. Trust with your bank, between a bank and its regulator, and between consumers and brands. How does your digital engagement and security strategy change when the “customer” might actually be an algorithm?

As Red Fan Founder and CEO Kathleen Lucente examined in her latest From the Desk Of Newsletter, every business needs to understand that the rules of engagement have fundamentally changed through agentic and generative AI. Companies winning in 2026 aren’t driving the customer journey through keywords or social media anymore. They’re optimizing for AI comprehension and engagement. Your prospective customer isn’t Googling you—they’re asking ChatGPT about you. Consumers want convenience—and agentic commerce will deliver (more on the cost of convenience in the next section). Generative engine optimization (GEO) is superseding SEO. Kathleen put it plainly, “If you’re not embedded in the AI training datasets that matter, you literally don’t exist in the buying conversation.”

 

The Fraud Epidemic Demands Intelligent Friction

Open any fraud report today and you’ll see alarming statistics. The FTC’s recent report to Congress noted that fraud losses reported by adults 60 and over increased fourfold from 2020 to 2024. That’s billions in losses for just one demographic.

When Red Fan helped launch Fort Knox in July, we saw firsthand just how much education is needed in the consumer banking world to combat rampant fraud. The sophistication of modern fraud schemes—from AI-powered voice cloning to elaborate social engineering attacks—has reached a point where traditional security measures simply aren’t enough. Finovate’s analysis reminds us that “not every evolution of financial crime will be exclusively technologically driven.” The human element remains crucial.

Fort Knox Founder Erik Beguin joined Cornerstone’s Mary Wisniewski on Money Isn’t Everything to discuss the balance between the technical and human measures that will combat fraud. Erik is urging banks and technology providers to introduce what he calls “intentional friction” into money movement, an idea Mary explored in relation to payment app safeguards. Such friction could influence human behavior, potentially saving us from ourselves in the midst of a social engineering attack or other financial scam. 

The lesson is clear: Frictionless isn’t always better. Amazon’s one-click purchasing revolutionized e-commerce, but in an era of sophisticated fraud, strategic friction points protect both businesses and customers. The winners will be those who can identify where to add intelligent speed bumps without disrupting the user experience. 

We’ll be following the evolution of fraud closely as we embark on 2026, including tuning into Datos Insights’ webinar in January to hear their latest intelligence on fraud and AML trends.

 

Clean Data Is Table Stakes (But Most Companies Still Can’t Play)

Remember when “Big Data” was the Next Big Thing? Javelin’s 2026 Digital Lending Trends report zeros in on what could be a game-changing year for lenders—if they’ve invested in an aggressive data-driven strategy combining technology with personalization and proactivity.

AI amplifies everything. If your data is clean, AI makes you superhuman. Our client Kinective demonstrated this commitment with their acquisition of Datava earlier this year. The team’s recent piece on building a robust data strategy offers practical do’s and don’ts every organization should consider.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most companies still can’t answer basic questions about their customers because their data sits in silos, spreadsheets and systems that don’t talk to each other. In 2026, that’s not just inefficient—it’s existential.

These three trends demand your immediate attention, but there are a few others that deserve strategic monitoring.

 

Other Trends We’re Watching

• The rise of stablecoins and tokenized deposits dominated financial services headlines in 2024. But as Celent wisely notes, “FOMO is not a strategy.” Every few years, we see this pattern. A new technology emerges, everyone scrambles to have a position on it, and most rush in without understanding the why behind the what. Whether it’s blockchain, NFTs or now stablecoins, the lesson remains the same: Technology without strategy is just expensive experimentation. Want to take a deeper dive into stablecoins? Read CSI’s robust report—including implications for financial institutions—here. 
• Finovate’s research calls out a fascinating regulatory split: The U.S. is seeing major uncertainty in open banking (with the CFPB rule blockage) but clarity on stablecoins (GENIUS Act passed). Meanwhile, Europe and the UK are experiencing aggressive, clear regulations on AI, identity verification and data access.
• Cornerstone Advisors’ annual GonzoBanker® Awards echoed many of the same reflections on stablecoins, AI and agentic commerce. They also recapped a wild year of bank M&A, with more activity on the horizon in 2026. Plus, hats off to our friends at CSI on the technology acquisition front: the team’s purchase of Apiture was recognized as one of the fintech acquisitions of the year.  

 

Still thinking about how agentic AI will impact your business?

Between now and January 17, Red Fan is offering a 90-minute Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Readiness Assessment to the first 12 companies that respond.

What you’ll receive:

• Your AI Visibility Score—how ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity currently position your company relative to competitors when prospects ask buying questions in your category.
• The Critical Gap Analysis—which AI training datasets you’re missing from and why that’s costing you deals you’ll never know about.
• Your Custom 90-Day GEO Roadmap—the exact content architecture, platform strategy and trust signal amplification needed to achieve top-3 AI positioning in your category.

 

By the end of our 90 minutes together, you’ll know exactly where you stand and what needs to change—whether you work with Red Fan or handle it internally.

Spots are limited. Contact us today or book directly through our team.