On the surface, the digital race among financial institutions has largely driven new investments and strategic partnership to evolve offerings and meet consumer demands. According to recent research, digital banking Americans want their primary financial provider to provide them with a personalized customer service experience above all else. Banks and credit unions have hustled to meet consumer expectations and emulate fintech innovation, but according to the 2025 Digital Banking Performance Metrics Report* by Cornerstone Advisors (commissioned by Alkami), the result has been widespread parity when it comes to digital banking performance.
The reason? High-performing institutions are no longer just offering digital, they’re engaging digitally. The most digitally mature revealed from the Retail Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model, 2025 Update**, continues to correlate to growth with the most advanced institutions reporting up to 5x higher annual average revenue growth than their less mature peers. They're leveraging user-friendly platforms, with data-powered personalization, relevant offers and cross-sell strategies that turn digital interactions into tangible results.
Consumers want a great experience and relevance
Half of digital banking users would switch financial institutions for a significantly better user experience, according to recent research conducted by The Center for Generational Kinetics, commissioned by Alkami***. Among younger millennials, that number jumps to 62%.
The digital experience IS the banking experience, and relevancy plays an important part of the primacy battle—and regional and community financial institutions (RCFIs) are trailing.
In 2025, only 38% of consumers at RCFIs revealed that their provider’s product recommendations had become more relevant over the past year. This puts them statistically behind both national banks (45%) and online-only neobanks (53%), with the gap widening year-over-year.
Consumers still want core products: checking, savings, even credit cards—but they want the journey and outreach from their primary financial provider to feel intuitive, responsive, and relevant. RCFIs must rethink account opening, condensing it to under five minutes whether it be online or in-branch, prioritizing security, ease, and UX design that builds immediate trust.
Being intentional with data
Relevance plays a critical part in consumer engagement, and their perception of how much their financial institution knows them. Every transaction an account holder makes tells a story, and through enriched transaction cleansing, customer insights and AI-driven models, financial institutions can demonstrate fluency. Proving they’re intentional with their outreach and interested in supporting an account holder wherever they are along their financial journey.
Sixty percent of digital banking users say it’s very important or important for their financial institutions to use data to make relevant product recommendations. Yet many institutions are still leaving this opportunity on the table. Transactional behaviors identified within the account holder portfolio can (and should) trigger targeted offers. For instance:
- Seeing regular transfers to Robinhood? Suggest an in-house high-yield savings account.
- Checking accounts that have consistent low balances? Promote budgeting tools or fee-transparent overdraft protection.
- Mortgage payments are being sent to outside lenders? Pitch refinance options.
- Identifying business deposits in a personal account? Offer business products and an advisor call.
The most digitally mature banks and credit unions—the Data-First cohort—have deployed artificial intelligence at some level across their organization (42%)**. This aligns with their revenue-focused leadership and sophisticated data infrastructure, allowing them to be nimble on new technologies and market shifts. Eighty-eight percent of Data-First operations have modern data solutions deployed more often than other segments. According to Retail Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model, 2025 Update, 67%** of Data-First institutions can automatically push targeted marketing to their account holders building the relevancy narrative, and interestingly, 23%** can automatically intercept an important moment of a consumer’s digital experience with a marketing tactic.
Cross-sell is the quiet power move
When done right, cross sell can feel like a bank or credit union is anticipating an account holder’s financial needs, before they express it. Cornerstone’s Digital Banking Performance Metrics report found that in 2024, institutions expanded digital user relationships by an average of 1.22 new products per user, up from 1.06 in 2023. But top performers hit 1.77*. Using transaction data and artificial intelligence predictive modeling to build targeted audiences and campaign outreach, banks and credit unions can:
- Identify high balances for investment accounts or certificates of deposit.
- Promote HELOCs based on homeownership behaviors.
- Target account holders moving funds to competitors.
- Match behavioral indicators for a credit card campaign.
Cross-sell is the engine behind deeper profitability—uniting selling and serving—to execute use cases that will drive strategic business outcomes and increase customer lifetime value.
Strategy over sameness
Digital parity doesn’t equal business performance parity. The institutions that will lead the next chapter of growth aren’t the ones with the most features, they’re the ones using those features with intent to make every interaction with their account holders impactful.
Performance now hinges on the trifecta: user experience, data activation, and smart cross-sell. The institutions that thrive will treat every digital interaction as a trust-building opportunity, not just a transaction.
This is the basis of Anticipatory Banking: a strategic operating model where data, AI, and experience come together to create a true sales and service platform that drives revenue growth and relevancy.
*The 2025 Digital Banking Performance Metrics benchmark report (conducted by Cornerstone Advisors, commissioned by Alkami) is compiled from a sample of 98 financial institutions, 35 banks and 63 credit unions with an average asset size of $4.7 billion, that self-reported the data found in this report. Participating institutions range in asset size from $300 million to $46 billion. The data collected is for fiscal year 2024.
**Retail Banking Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model Report. The insights are from a survey of 202 digital banking decision makers conducted in late 2024 (November 5 - December 3). The study focuses on identifying differences between digitally mature and developing financial institutions, with specific attention to retail banking services. The participant demographics are from institutions with at least $200M in assets, who are between 21 and 75 years old, employed full-time, and influence digital banking platform decisions. The research deliberately excluded those focused primarily on commercial banking to maintain a focus on retail banking operations. The sample is distributed across institution sizes, with 35% from $200M-$500M institutions, 25% from $500M-$1B, 22% from $1B-$5B, 14% from $5B-$50B, and 4% from $50B-$500B institutions. Regarding institution types, credit unions represent 57% of respondents, traditional banks 36%, and neobanks 7%.
***The Generational Trends in Digital Banking Study, 2025. A 2025 National Study Conducted Online From February 24, 2025, To March 14, 2025 By Alkami And The Center For Generational Kinetics Which Surveyed 1,500 U.S. Participants (Ages 22-65) Who Currently Have A Bank Account And Are Active In Digital Banking. The Survey Was Weighted Against The 2020 U.S. Census For Age, Region, Gender And Ethnicity.
