Sells banks and credit unions a conversational and agentic AI platform trained on banking, used for customer-facing digital assistants and for employee knowledge tools; since June 2026 it is sold as part of Backbase's Banking OS rather than as a standalone vendor.
What is Kasisto, and which banks use it?
Kasisto, founded in New York in 2013 as a spin-out of SRI International, sells conversational and agentic AI trained for banking: digital assistants on the KAI platform, the KAIgentic agent platform (2025) and a banking-tuned model, KaiGPT. Backbase bought it on June 23, 2026 for an undisclosed sum. Among our 100 banks, JPMorgan Chase is named as a customer by Kasisto and by American Banker. Kasisto had raised $90 million. Pricing is not published.
Category
Founded
2013
Headquarters
New York, New York, US
Ownership
Acquired by Backbase, the Amsterdam-based banking-software company, announced and completed June 23, 2026 for an undisclosed amount; Kasisto had raised a total of $90 million by its September 2024 Series D.[1][2][4]
Deployment
SaaS (cloud); the KaiGPT model can also run in the bank's own cloud or on premises; since June 2026 sold inside Backbase's Banking OS
Pricing
Sales-led subscription (cloud); since June 2026 sold through Backbase's Banking OS · not published
Banks among the 100
1
- Backbase, the Amsterdam-based banking-software company, announced and completed the acquisition of Kasisto on June 23, 2026; American Banker reported the price was undisclosed and that Kasisto CEO Lance Berks would transition out of the company after the deal.
- Kasisto was launched out of SRI International and released KAI Banking in June 2016, naming Royal Bank of Canada and DBS Bank as early users of its smart bots.
- Kasisto said in May 2023 it was already working with 47 major financial institutions when it launched KAI-GPT, a banking-specific large language model, and KAI Answers, a generative-AI tool for front-line bank staff.
- Kasisto's releases name J.P. Morgan, Westpac, Standard Chartered, TD and Nedbank among its customers, plus Indiana-based First Financial Bank, Meriwest and Indiana University Credit Union; the First Financial named is First Financial Corporation of Terre Haute, not First Financial Bancorp of Ohio.
- Total funding reached $90 million with a Series D closed in September 2024, when Don Layden became executive chairman; earlier investors named by Kasisto include Oak HC/FT, NCR, Naples Technology Ventures, Rho Capital Partners and Two Sigma Ventures.
- KAIgentic launched in early access in August 2025, KAIops (agentic IT-operations incident analysis) followed in October 2025, and in November 2025 Kasisto said KAIgentic was integrated with Microsoft Agent 365.
- Pricing is not published; KAI Express (2021) was sold as a cloud subscription that a bank or credit union could end after 90 days if not satisfied.
What does Kasisto sell to banks?
| Product | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| KAIgentic[7][1] | Agentic AI platform for customer interactions, employee workflows and contact-centre experiences, with compliance pre- and post-processing and an AI agent console; early access from August 2025. | Generally available |
| KaiGPT (KAI-GPT)[10][7] | Kasisto's banking-specific large language model, launched May 2023; deployable in the bank's cloud or on premises as an option inside KAIgentic. | Generally available |
| KAI Answers[10][4] | Generative-AI knowledge assistant that answers bank employees' questions from the institution's policies, procedures and product documents, and feeds answers to Kasisto's virtual assistants. | Generally available |
| KAI digital assistants (consumer and business banking)[12][14] | Pre-trained virtual assistants for bank and credit-union apps, websites and messaging, sold in 2021 as KAI Express, a cloud offering designed to deploy in 30 days. | Generally available |
| KAIops[8] | Operational-intelligence layer on KAIgentic that monitors system health, correlates telemetry and drafts root-cause analyses for bank IT incidents; announced October 2025. | Announced |
| Agentic Banking suite in Backbase Banking OS[1] | The combined Backbase and Kasisto agentic offering, which Backbase says is available immediately to all current and future Banking OS customers. | Generally available |
How much does Kasisto cost?
How it is charged: Sales-led subscription (cloud); since June 2026 sold through Backbase's Banking OS.
Kasisto does not publish a price list.
Pricing is not published. Neither Kasisto nor Backbase lists plans or prices; the only public term is from 2021, when Kasisto said KAI Express customers could end their subscription after 90 days if not satisfied.
Which banks use Kasisto?
| Bank | What | Status |
|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase | Named as a customer of Kasisto's KAI conversational AI platform in Kasisto's releases and in American Banker's 2026 acquisition report; the deployment is not described in either source.[4][2] | In production |
Among the 100 largest US banks on this site, from sources that name the bank: the bank, Kasisto or the press. Status is the furthest stage a source confirms.
What is KAIgentic (KAI platform)?
Kasisto's agentic AI platform, launched August 2025 on top of its KAI conversational platform, orchestrates banking AI agents across voice and digital channels, with pre- and post-processing layers for policy, hallucination detection and confidence scoring, an agent console for human staff, and a choice of open models or Kasisto's own banking-tuned KaiGPT model.[7]
What has Kasisto done, and when?
- Jun 23, 2026
- Nov 19, 2025
Microsoft Agent 365 integration[9]
Kasisto says KAIgentic is one of the first agentic platforms integrated with Microsoft Agent 365.
- Oct 14, 2025
KAIops announced[8]
An operational-intelligence layer on KAIgentic for bank IT incident monitoring and root-cause analysis.
- Aug 19, 2025
KAIgentic launched[7]
Kasisto launches its agentic AI platform in early access with select banks and credit unions, with broader availability expected later in 2025.
- Oct 23, 2024
Lance Berks becomes CEO[5]
Berks, formerly of Amelia and Kore.ai, succeeds co-founder Zor Gorelov, who becomes a senior advisor.
- Sep 17, 2024
Series D; total funding $90 million[4]
Kasisto closes a Series D that brings total funding to $90 million and names Don Layden executive chairman.
- Feb 22, 2024
First Financial Bank (Indiana) results[11]
Kasisto reports that First Financial Bank's KAI-powered assistant Gabby, launched May 2023, coincided with a 10% rise in new accounts opened (bank- and vendor-reported).
- May 31, 2023
KAI-GPT and KAI Answers[10]
Kasisto launches a banking-specific large language model and its first generative-AI application for bank staff, saying it works with 47 major financial institutions; Westpac is implementing KAI.
- Sep 14, 2021
Integrated into Glia's platform[17]
Glia integrates Kasisto's KAI assistant into its digital customer-service platform, with hand-off from the assistant to a live representative.
- Jul 28, 2021
$15.5 million Series C[13]
Series C led by Naples Technology Ventures and NCR, with existing investors including Oak HC/FT, Rho Capital Partners and Two Sigma Ventures; Kasisto says it has raised over $67 million to date.
- Jul 13, 2021
KAI Express launched[12]
A cloud-delivered, pre-trained digital assistant designed to deploy in 30 days, with a subscription the customer can end after 90 days if not satisfied.
- Mar 13, 2019
Standard Chartered's Stacy in production[15]
Kasisto says the KAI-powered assistant Stacy is in full production with Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong, in English and Cantonese.
- Jun 28, 2016
KAI Banking on messaging[14]
Kasisto releases KAI Banking for Facebook Messenger, Slack and SMS; Royal Bank of Canada is named as the first North American bank to use it and DBS Bank as rolling out KAI-powered bots.
- Jan 1, 2013
What do banks use Kasisto for?
| Use | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-facing digital assistants[15][11] | Branded virtual assistants in bank apps, websites and messaging that answer questions and complete banking tasks, such as Standard Chartered's Stacy and First Financial Bank's Gabby. | In production | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Agentic AI for service and operations[7][8] | KAIgentic agents that act within bank procedures across voice and digital channels, and KAIops agents for IT incident analysis. | Rolling out | Generative & agentic AI |
| Employee knowledge assistant[10][4] | KAI Answers gives front-line staff generated answers drawn from the bank's policies, procedures and product documents. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Delivery through banking platforms[4][1] | Kasisto assistants are sold through partners such as FIS, NCR, Candescent and Q2, and since June 2026 inside Backbase's Banking OS. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
What has Kasisto disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Total funding raised | $90 million (after the Series D)[4] | Sep 17, 2024 |
| Financial-institution customers (vendor-reported) | 47 major financial institutions[10] | May 31, 2023 |
| Series C round | $15.5 million; over $67 million raised to date[13] | Jul 28, 2021 |
| Assistant results across customers (vendor-reported) | 85% containment rates, 50% reduction in customer-service costs, 400% increase in digital engagement[13] | Jul 28, 2021 |
| First Financial Bank, Indiana (vendor-reported) | 10% increase in new accounts opened and 46% more logins by digital customers who use the assistant[11] | Feb 22, 2024 |
| Acquisition price | Not disclosed[2] | Jun 23, 2026 |
“This acquisition sharpens our position as the strategic partner for banks serious about AI transformation.”[1]
Jouk Pleiter · CEO and Founder, Backbase · Jun 23, 2026
“Trust is the currency of banking, and most AI cannot be trusted.”[7]
Lance Berks · CEO, Kasisto · Aug 19, 2025
“Agentic AI will reshape banking over the next decade.”[1]
Lance Berks · CEO, Kasisto · Jun 23, 2026
Who runs Kasisto?
Lance Berks
Chief Executive Officer (from October 2024; transitioning out after the June 2026 acquisition)[5][2]
Zor Gorelov
Co-founder; CEO until October 2024, then senior advisor[5]
Don Layden
Executive Chairman of the Board (from September 2024)[4]
Jouk Pleiter
CEO and founder of Backbase, Kasisto's owner[1]
Which rules apply to a bank using Kasisto?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| CFPB | A bank that puts a Kasisto assistant in front of customers remains responsible under consumer law if it gives wrong answers, fails to recognise a dispute or blocks access to a human, the risks the CFPB's 2023 chatbot spotlight describes. | CFPB Chatbots in Consumer Finance (issue spotlight, 2023) |
| NIST | KaiGPT and KAI Answers generate text from bank documents; NIST's Generative AI Profile names confabulation and information-integrity risks that a bank would assess before letting generated answers reach customers or staff. | NIST AI 600-1 (Generative AI Profile) |
| OCC | A hosted assistant that handles customer data is a third-party relationship; the 2023 interagency guidance on due diligence, contracts and monitoring now also covers the change of owner to Backbase. | OCC Bulletin 2023-17 SR 23-4 |
| NY DFS | New York's 2024 customer-service letter sets expectations for banks it supervises that use virtual assistants, including a route to a human agent. | DFS Virtual Currency Customer Service Guidance (May 2024) |
| EU AI Act | For a bank operating in the EU, Article 50 requires telling customers they are interacting with an AI system, which applies to Kasisto-powered assistants. | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 |
Linked authorities have a page in the AI Regulation Tracker; the others are named for completeness.
What should a bank note before buying Kasisto?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice or a recommendation.
01
The vendor changed owner in June 2026
Kasisto is now part of Backbase, its CEO is transitioning out, and Backbase sells the combined offering through its Banking OS; contract counterparty, roadmap and support model are the points the record leaves open.
02
Pricing is not published
Neither Kasisto nor Backbase lists prices; the only public commercial term is KAI Express's 2021 90-day exit option.
03
Named large-bank customers are few and mostly dated
Kasisto's customer list has named J.P. Morgan, TD, Westpac and Standard Chartered for years without describing current deployments; the releases do not say whether 'TD' refers to TD's US bank, and an earlier 2018 list that included Wells Fargo was not repeated later.
04
The 'First Financial Bank' in Kasisto's releases is the Indiana bank
American Banker identifies it as Indiana-based First Financial Bank (First Financial Corporation), not First Financial Bancorp of Ohio, which is one of our tracked banks.
05
Performance figures are vendor-reported
Containment, cost-reduction and account-growth figures come from Kasisto's own releases and are not independently audited.
What are the alternatives to Kasisto?
Glia
Contact-centre and AI platform for banks and credit unions: voice and digital AI agents, staff copilot, outbound AI and CRM.
interface.ai
Voice, chat and employee AI agents (BankGPT) and an agentic contact centre (Nexus) for credit unions and community banks.
Talkdesk
Cloud contact centre with AI agents (Autopilot, Copilot, voice biometrics) and a Financial Services Experience Cloud for banks.
Personetics
AI that turns bank transaction data into personalised insights, advice and offers in the bank's app, plus tools for relationship managers.
Eltropy
Texting, video, chat and AI voice and agent platform for credit unions and community banks, plus collections and payments tools.
How much does Kasisto cost?
Kasisto does not publish pricing, and Backbase, which acquired it in June 2026, does not list a price for the combined agentic offering either. Kasisto sold its assistants as cloud subscriptions through a sales-led process; in 2021 it said KAI Express customers could end their subscription after 90 days if they were not satisfied. Any current price has to come from a Backbase or Kasisto quote.
Which banks use Kasisto?
Among the 100 largest US banks tracked here, JPMorgan Chase is the one named as a Kasisto customer, in Kasisto's own releases and in American Banker's June 2026 report on the Backbase deal; neither describes the deployment. Kasisto also names Westpac, Standard Chartered, TD, Nedbank and DBS abroad, and US community banks and credit unions such as First Financial Bank of Indiana, Meriwest and Indiana University Credit Union.
Who owns Kasisto?
Backbase, the Amsterdam-based banking-software company founded by Jouk Pleiter, acquired Kasisto on June 23, 2026 for an undisclosed amount. Before that Kasisto was venture-backed, raising $90 million in total through a September 2024 Series D from investors that had included Oak HC/FT, NCR, Naples Technology Ventures, Rho Capital Partners and Two Sigma Ventures.
Is Kasisto a bank or regulated financial institution?
No. Kasisto is a software company that sells conversational and agentic AI to banks and credit unions; it holds no banking charter. The banks using its assistants carry the regulatory duties, including consumer-protection rules for chatbots and third-party risk management of Kasisto, and now Backbase, as a vendor.
What is KAIgentic?
KAIgentic is Kasisto's agentic AI platform, launched in early access in August 2025. It runs AI agents for customer service, employee workflows and contact centres across voice and digital channels, adds compliance checks before and after the model responds, including hallucination detection and confidence scoring, and lets a bank use open models or Kasisto's own banking-tuned KaiGPT, which can run in the bank's cloud or on premises.
How does Kasisto compare with Glia?
The two have worked together: in September 2021 Glia integrated Kasisto's KAI assistant into its digital customer-service platform so conversations could pass from the assistant to a human representative. Kasisto's focus is the banking-trained assistant and agent layer, now inside Backbase's Banking OS; Glia sells a contact-centre and customer-service platform to banks and credit unions. Neither publishes pricing.
- Backbase acquires Kasisto, leading the industry shift to Agentic Banking
- Bank chatbot platform Kasisto acquired by Backbase
- Backbase Acquires Kasisto for Agentic Banking
- Kasisto Secures $90M, Names Don Layden as Executive Chairman
- Conversational AI Veteran Lance Berks Joins Kasisto as CEO
- Kasisto Appoints Joshua Schechter as Chief Product & Innovation Officer to Lead Next Wave of Agentic AI in Banking
- Kasisto Launches KAIgentic, The Banking Standard for Agentic AI
- Kasisto Launches KAIops - Agentic AI for Near-Zero Incident Banking Operations
- Kasisto Powers AI for Banking Across the Microsoft Enterprise Ecosystem
- Kasisto Launches KAI-GPT
- First Financial Bank Drives 27% CD Growth with Kasisto's AI
- Kasisto Launches KAI Express - A Cloud Based Intelligent Digital Assistant Offering, Designed for Rapid Deployment and Delivered with a Results Acceleration Reassurance Guarantee
- Leading the Evolution of AI-powered IDAs
- Kasisto Releases KAI Banking on Messaging
- KAI Banking Powers Standard Chartered's Virtual Assistant
- Kasisto Awarded 2018 the Fintech 250
- Glia and Kasisto Partner to Incorporate AI into its Digital Customer Service Platform
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