About Jorissa Neutelings: Currently serving as the Chief Digital Officer and Member of the Executive Board at ABN AMRO, she leads the bank’s digital strategy, focusing on client interaction, innovation, and the integration of AI into banking services.
About ABN AMRO: A leading Dutch bank headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, employing approximately 20,000 people with reported operating income of roughly €8.6 billion (2023), dedicated to the mission “Banking for better, for generations to come.”
Looking 3 to 5 years ahead, how do you foresee the evolution of digital interactions given the rise of agentic and conversational AI?
Jorissa Neutelings: The strategy must reject a pure “technology push” and focus entirely on customer impact. Within 3 to 5 years, it is projected that over 50% of customers will possess their own intermediate AI agents to assist with purchasing decisions and financial choices. This shifts the banking paradigm: the bank must not only market to humans but ensure its services are discoverable and selectable by these customer-side agents. The challenge lies in building an infrastructure where the bank’s systems can seamlessly interact with these personal digital intermediaries.
In the present relational model, what is the specific role of the human advisor versus the AI agent?
Jorissa Neutelings: Despite 25 years of digitalization, high-stakes decisions—such as securing a mortgage—still trigger a fundamental human need for “confirmation.” Customers often conduct digital research but ultimately seek a human expert to validate their decision. Consequently, the operational model is augmentation, not replacement. The “human-in-the-loop” concept failed for mass conversational interfaces, so the focus has shifted to AI augmenting the advisor’s capabilities to provide hyper-personalized service, while retaining the human for complex, emotional validation.
How do you manage customer fear regarding AI autonomy and ensure a safe, trusting environment?
Jorissa Neutelings: The strategy is not to run on fear, but on opportunities (“chances”). It is utopian to expect customers to understand the technical workings of AI; rather, they pay the bank to handle that complexity for them. The average customer is “lazy” regarding backend mechanics and prioritizes convenience. Therefore, trust is built not through technical tutorials, but through ethical responsibility and transparency regarding data usage.
Have you seen the emergence of new job titles, such as Prompt Engineers, within the bank?
Jorissa Neutelings: The expected demand for specialized “Prompt Engineers” did not materialize. Instead, the focus turned to upskilling the existing workforce to become proficient in prompting. Given the fierce competition for external data scientists and IT talent, the bank’s strategy is to train current employees—who may work until age 70—to utilize these new techniques rather than trying to hire for every new skill gap.
