Last week, our team attended Swiss Banking's Digital Finance Day 2026, and it was good to see so many familiar faces from the Swiss banking community. Our CEO Manuel Grenacher and our CDO Sina Wulfmeyer hosted a panel with two of our clients. Philip Yazdani leads the AI Center of Excellence at Pictet, and Paolo Vanini represented Basler Kantonalbank (BKB).
The two banks have taken very different routes. Pictet moved early, while BKB chose to take its time. The conversation had no slides and no spin, and it put both approaches side by side.
Pictet: from a chat tool to automation in three years
Pictet started with a chat tool in its first year with AI. Three years later, the bank automates work with both structured and unstructured data.
Philip explained that it all started with a coalition. Risk, compliance and IT have to move together, or nothing moves. Even with that progress, he was modest about where the bank stands. “We are in the days of learning,” he said, and for him, collaboration remains the recipe for success.
BKB: the case for arriving later
Paolo explained why arriving later can work in a bank's favour. “All banks have the same rules, the interpretation is a bit different,” he said.
BKB is not new to the field, since it started with machine learning years ago. What took time was moving from siloed initiatives to common platforms and to people. Paolo's point was that banks have to enable their staff so the bank stays productive during the change, and so those people support the AI mission.
What both banks are still waiting for
Despite their different starting points, both banks are looking at the same options. Both are interested in Swiss open-weight hosting such as Giotto and Phoeniqs, but scaling is still an open question and the commercial terms have yet to arrive. In the meantime, larger providers could eat the cake that local players are baking right now.
Compute is another bottleneck in the Swiss market and slows down model adoption for everyone. The panel also pointed to a clearer limit, which is how banks use their data to grow the business.
Less chat, more time for clients
Both stories ended in the same place. Banks need less chat and more active collaboration, so their people can win back time for clients. This is also the idea behind Remy, the AI teammate for relationship managers that we showed at the event. Remy helps advisors spend more time with their clients.
Dr. Sina Wulfmeyer and Manuel Grenacher presenting at Digital Finance Day 2026
Two Banks, Two Paths to AI: Our Panel with Pictet and BKB
Last week, our team attended Swiss Banking's Digital Finance Day 2026, and it was good to see so many familiar faces from the Swiss banking community. Our CEO Manuel Grenacher and our CDO Sina Wulfmeyer hosted a panel with two of our clients. Philip Yazdani leads the AI Center of Excellence at Pictet, and Paolo Vanini represented Basler Kantonalbank (BKB).
The two banks have taken very different routes. Pictet moved early, while BKB chose to take its time. The conversation had no slides and no spin, and it put both approaches side by side.
Pictet: from a chat tool to automation in three years
Pictet started with a chat tool in its first year with AI. Three years later, the bank automates work with both structured and unstructured data.
Philip explained that it all started with a coalition. Risk, compliance and IT have to move together, or nothing moves. Even with that progress, he was modest about where the bank stands. “We are in the days of learning,” he said, and for him, collaboration remains the recipe for success.
BKB: the case for arriving later
Paolo explained why arriving later can work in a bank's favour. “All banks have the same rules, the interpretation is a bit different,” he said.
BKB is not new to the field, since it started with machine learning years ago. What took time was moving from siloed initiatives to common platforms and to people. Paolo's point was that banks have to enable their staff so the bank stays productive during the change, and so those people support the AI mission.
What both banks are still waiting for
Despite their different starting points, both banks are looking at the same options. Both are interested in Swiss open-weight hosting such as Giotto and Phoeniqs, but scaling is still an open question and the commercial terms have yet to arrive. In the meantime, larger providers could eat the cake that local players are baking right now.
Compute is another bottleneck in the Swiss market and slows down model adoption for everyone. The panel also pointed to a clearer limit, which is how banks use their data to grow the business.
Less chat, more time for clients
Both stories ended in the same place. Banks need less chat and more active collaboration, so their people can win back time for clients. This is also the idea behind Remy, the AI teammate for relationship managers that we showed at the event. Remy helps advisors spend more time with their clients.
Dr. Sina Wulfmeyer and Manuel Grenacher presenting at Digital Finance Day 2026