Defaults do not survive structural shifts. The banks that redesign their operating model around AI as a workforce will set the terms. The rest will adapt to theirs.
A framework for Swiss banking and financial services leadership.
The Argument
An Agentic Target Operating Model describes what the organisation looks like when AI is a participant: three layers of workforce (bots, agents, humans), each with different governance. Escalation designed in, with triggers based on the cost of being wrong. Outcomes owned end-to-end by agent systems that coordinate across what used to be functional boundaries.
Three layers. Bots handle the deterministic. Agents decide within policy envelopes. Humans govern the edges.
View the modelFINMA's principles-based regulation, data sovereignty, and relationship banking create structural space for agentic systems.
Read the argumentCustomer AI agents will query 30 banks simultaneously. Your inbound volume increases tenfold. Your revenue does not.
See the numbers“If your mental model still has departments optimising steps, you are not there yet.”
Assessment
Fifteen questions across five dimensions. Five minutes. Exportable as PDF for your leadership team.
Thoughts
April 9, 2026
·4 min read
Every bank executive looking at agentic AI eventually arrives at the same question. How do I let it touch the systems of record without losing trust, audit, or control? The answer lies in the layer that carries the AI's decision into the system of record.
ReadApril 8, 2026
·2 min read
Every bank COO has a planning horizon. Most assume 18 to 36 months. Anthropic released Claude Managed Agents this morning. The window just got shorter.
ReadApril 2, 2026
·6 min read
Every bank deploying AI agents will face the same organisational question: who is responsible for a workforce that is not human? Neither IT nor HR can own this alone. It is a design decision most institutions have not yet made.
ReadAbout
Twenty years across digital banking, fintech, and emerging technologies. Multiple director-level roles at UBS covering digital channels, wealth management, and investment products across international markets. CEO of Trust Square, Zürich's blockchain ecosystem. Managing Partner at Tenity, leading early-stage fintech investment and open innovation partnerships with Julius Bär, UBS, and others. Co-founded an ETH AI spin-off. Now heading banking and financial services for UiPath in Switzerland.
Based in Zürich. One daughter who will be agent-native before she is old enough to open a bank account. This site is a framework I use in my own thinking, offered here as a basis for serious conversation with people working on the same questions.
linkedin.com/in/marcoliverhauserLet's talk
I work with leaders in the field on what the agentic shift means for their institution. If any of this resonates, start a conversation — no agenda needed.