Open Standards Will Unlock Agentic AI's Next Breakthrough in Fintech

In 2025, AI agents transformed how fintechs operate internally, automating complex workflows and coordinating across tools with minimal human direction. In 2026, we'll see more and more of these agentic features offered directly to customers. But the industry faces a choice. Today's financial technology ecosystem is deeply fragmented. Every payment processor, lender, bank, and platform has its own data formats and APIs. Customers can either get agents that work only within isolated systems, or we can collectively move toward open standards that enable agents to operate across a broader set of financial contexts. Earlier this month, Block, Anthropic, and OpenAI, in partnership with the Linux Foundation, announced the formation of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), bringing together contributions from their respective companies, with support from other AI leaders, to establish open standards for agentic AI. While early, this represents a meaningful step toward improving interoperability in financial technology. If the industry embraces this direction, we can build an ecosystem where agents can learn from richer data, access harmonized interfaces, and deliver benefits that compound rather than fragment. If we don't, we risk recreating the same siloed architecture that has slowed innovation for decades, only this time with more powerful technology.