How Gradient Labs is thinking about the shift to agentic banking. The agentic banking future brings a lot of uncertainty. While some experts predict the user interface will be visual, others imagine a screen-free, voice-based user experience. At FinovateEurope 2026, The Finovate Group sat down with Dimitri Masin, CEO of Gradient Labs, to discuss the evolution from mobile-first banking to agentic banking, as well as how banks should think about the build vs. buy decision in the age of AI. Masin contends that while banks have spent the last decade perfecting digital interfaces, a major operational challenge still remains: the complexity of customer operations. "Even though fintechs have created amazing apps, the second half of the problem remains unsolved. These companies still require gigantic human organizations to power those accounts... and that's the source of many bad customer experiences today," said Masin. According to Masin, The Finovate Group is now entering a second major transformation in banking in which AI agents can take on complex, nuanced workflows that traditional automation couldn't handle. "With traditional automation, you just can't automate many of the things banks need to do - they require judgment and nuance... Now, with advances in AI, you can automate those messy processes that were only doable by humans before," he added. Dimitri Masin has spent more than a decade in fintech and banking, including early experience at Monzo, where he helped scale customer operations. His work focuses on applying AI to automate complex financial workflows and improve operational efficiency. Founded in 2023, London-based Gradient Labs enables banks to embed AI agents directly into their systems to automate customer operations and complex workflows. By moving beyond rule-based automation, the company helps financial institutions reduce operational burden, improve customer experience, and prepare for an AI-first future.

Gradient Labs launches new outbound support agent, deploying AI to clear operational backlogs in financial services. Gradient Labs Feb 12, 2026, 09:25 ET With surging fraud volumes overwhelming financial institutions, Gradient Labs' new outbound support agent will proactively engage customers on issues such as suspicious transactions, missing documents, and overdue payments. LONDON, Feb. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ - Gradient Labs - the AI support platform that safely automates the hardest customer operations in financial services - today announced its new outbound support agent, designed to help financial institutions clear operational backlogs by proactively engaging customers across fraud prevention, verification, and collections. Some 57% of adults worldwide have experienced a scam in the past year, with nearly a quarter having lost money. With experts warning that fraud activity will likely increase in 2026, financial institutions are facing mounting pressure to protect customers and reduce losses. Soon, new rules will push receiving banks to actively monitor ACH payments for red flags, creating additional work for overburdened teams. Reducing the pressure, Gradient Labs' outbound agent autonomously reaches out to customers through text, email, and voice, automating any process where human agents currently reach out to customers, including: * Fraud prevention: Reaching out to confirm suspicious transactions and gathering critical context to prevent financial crime. * Document collection: Proactively requesting and validating missing information, and systematically following up on cases until completion. * Payment resolution: Guiding customers through failed payment scenarios while maintaining strict compliance. * Collections management: Initiating contact for overdue payments and providing clear pathways for resolutions. The agent guides conversations from initial outreach to resolution, asking follow-up questions, keeping conversations on track, and automatically closing or handing off cases based on outcome. Purpose-built for the financial services sector, Gradient Labs' outbound agent operates with the same safety guardrails as its market-proven inbound agent, which executes an average of four safety checks per message to ensure every conversation is handled with care and compliance. Since automating inbound customer queries, leading financial organizations - including Sling Money, Plum, Zego, and Yonder - have raised customer satisfaction scores up to 98%. "Support teams are drowning in operational outreach. There's too much to do, and not enough people to do it, so cases pile up, time-sensitive work gets pushed aside, and preventable fraud losses increase. However, Gradient Labs has developed a solution that can handle this outreach at scale, with the same high standards of experienced human teams," said Dimitri Masin, CEO of Gradient Labs. ABOUT GRADIENT LABS Gradient Labs builds AI agents that automate call center voice, text, and email experiences with higher CSAT scores than most human teams. Founded by Monzo's former AI leadership and trusted by leading fintechs, including Plum and Zego, Gradient Labs brings deep domain expertise and has purpose-built their product for the complexity of finance. Beyond inbound support, their AI agents automate complex SOPs that horizontal agents can't handle, leading to widespread success in this highly regulated industry. Media Contact SOURCE Gradient Labs

Gradient Labs launches the only Voice AI Agent built for the complexity of financial services. The first voice AI engineered to handle sensitive, regulated customer conversations without sacrificing speed or compliance, and capable of full case resolution. LONDON, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ - Gradient Labs, the conversational AI platform purpose-built for financial services, today announced the launch of its new Voice AI Agent - the first system engineered to deliver fast, natural support while meeting the regulatory and operational standards of banks and fintechs. "Voice in finance has always been unpredictable," said Dimitri Masin, Co-Founder and CEO of Gradient Labs. "We built a voice agent that responds quickly, feels natural, follows the correct procedures, and carries the same regulatory discipline your best human agents use every day." For years, voice support in finance has been stuck between two flawed options. Traditional IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems were rigid, slow, and incapable of handling real customer problems. Newer AI voice tools sound smooth but often fall apart the moment a call becomes sensitive - especially when customers mention fraud, show signs of vulnerability, or require regulated handling. Gradient Labs built its voice agent to remove this trade-off entirely. "Voice in finance has always been unpredictable," said Dimitri Masin, Co-Founder and CEO of Gradient Labs. "We built a voice agent that responds quickly, feels natural, follows the correct procedures, and carries the same regulatory discipline your best human agents use every day." * Clarifies intent before acting by asking targeted follow-up questions instead of guessing, ensuring it understands what the customer actually needs. * Uses parallel reasoning for real-time accuracy by evaluating multiple reasoning paths at once and selecting the correct one instantly without cutting safety checks. * Applies procedure-aware intelligence by recognising when a regulated process requires a specific sequence, when to double-check a detail, or when subtle language signals a deeper issue. * Integrates directly with back-end systems to update accounts, submit claims, trigger workflows, and complete operational tasks automatically. * Delivers end-to-end case resolution by following the full operational procedure - including back-office actions - to fully resolve complex issues in a single call. Behind the scenes, the platform runs compliance guardrails on every turn of conversation. These guardrails prevent false promises, inappropriate disclosures, mishandling of vulnerable customers, or responses that could compromise a fraud investigation. This approach mirrors how experienced human agents operate - but at far greater speed and consistency. The result is a system that keeps voice conversations really flexible while remaining safe and compliant. It's also easy to get started - banks and fintechs can try the agent instantly without setting up a dedicated line. Founded in 2023, Gradient Labs is an artificial intelligence startup redefining customer operations for regulated industries. Its AI support agent learns company-specific products and processes, enabling it to handle complex customer queries reliably and safely. Gradient Labs was co-founded by Dimitri Masin, Neal Lathia, and Danai Antoniou - early employees of UK challenger bank Monzo. The company already powers AI support for leading European fintechs and can reach over 32 million end users, with expansion underway in the US. Antonina, Gradient Labs, 380 938898879, [email protected], https://gradient-labs.ai/ View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/gradient-labs-launches-the-only-voice-ai-agent-built-for-the-complexity-of-financial-services-302628598.html SOURCE Gradient Labs