Top 6 Insights for Agentic AI Rollout Success: Prioritize Workflow Over Model Hype
Modernize Cores or Perish: Banks’ Clear Choice
Thanks for reading the “Cashless” newsletter, an insider’s view on Asia’s fintech, CBDC, and AI for anyone striving to understand “the Asia Century.” I’m Rich Turrin, and these are my hard-hitting insights designed to educate and inform. Subscribe to get these emerging trends directly in your inbox every Sunday. Every week, I scan thousands of articles to find only the best and most valuable for you. Subscribe to get my expertly curated news straight to your inbox each week. Free is good, but paid is better.
Topics:
Top Six Agentic AI Deployment Lessons
Modernize Cores or Die: Banks’ Stark Choice!
The Future of Cross Border Payments 2026
Less than 1% of Firms Build Responsible AI
Your Survival Guide to the GENIUS Act Premium subscribers only. Stablecoins are coming. Avoid the risks that no one is talking about!
Money Disrupted: The Definitive Collection of Stablecoin Resources Premium subscribers only. Everything you need to see through stablecoin hype and become an expert to stay ahead of the curve
Bonus Read ✦ Citi Report: Bank Tokens Crush Stablecoins?
Happy Sunday!
Today I am reminded of the Beatles song “When I’m sixty-four,” as today is my 64th birthday! The most poignant line from the song is, of course, “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I’m sixty-four.”
Along those lines, today’s art celebrates “profit and abundance,” which is in keeping with birthday best wishes!
We start out looking at a great read from McKinsey on six steps for better agentic AI deployment. With agentic AI so hot, these six steps may help many start out on the right foot!
Banks are struggling with AI, and one reason is their failure to update legacy core systems. When I worked at IBM, I discussed this issue with many banks struggling to implement big data.
Few wanted to update core systems, but those who did are now reaping the rewards and are AI-ready. Those that did not will pay far more and delay their AI transition.
This is why core modernization is life or death for banks.
The future of cross-border payments is more than just stablecoins, but you wouldn’t know it from all of the stablecoin hype.
This Finextra report from Sibos is what I call an “antidote” to stablecoin hype. It lays out a more realistic future where they play a role but are one of many payment methods.
This week, some of you may have caught a headline about Palantir’s Peter Thiel, claiming that “regulating promising technology and scientific progress, including in AI, risked courting the devil.” You can’t make this up.
Sadly, far too many think the same thing of responsible AI. As though building responsible AI will slow innovation.
It’s a major error because responsible AI brings only “profit and abundance!”
Finally, today’s bonus read is a fabulous report from Citi that looks at stablecoins and shows how banks are not out of the payment race just yet. In fact, they’re fighting back!
You may notice that some of my past articles are getting paywalls and that I am producing new premium content. I’ll do my best to keep these weekly newsletter articles open to all for a few weeks, but some may eventually get paywalls.
If you’d like to support my work and explore these extras, consider joining as a premium subscriber.
To all subscribers, my heartfelt thanks for opening your inbox and being part of this journey!
Rich
PS
Thanks for sharing with your friends! It’s a great way to say thanks.
Top Six Agentic AI Deployment Lessons
Focus on Workflow, Not the Model
Following a year working with Agentic AI, a team at McKinsey produced a masterpiece of simplicity on how to get a difficult task right.
And the number one problem? People are focusing on the AI agent and its tech rather than focusing on the workflow and people, which are far more critical.
Modernize Cores or Die: Banks’ Stark Choice!
94% of bank core modernization projects miss deadlines
IBM illustrates how difficult it is for banks to modernize their core banking systems, with 94% of banking modernization projects exceeding deadlines and over 50% of CIOs reporting cost overruns.
As banks run headlong into the AI age, this great read by IBM on bank core modernizations shows just how hard yet necessary they are.
Read why it cuts to the choice banks can no longer avoid: modernize or die trying.
The Future of Cross Border Payments 2026
The Antidote to Stablecoin Hysteria
Finextra with a great report from Sibos that I call the antidote to stablecoin hysteria.
The report shows not just the payment methods, but the problems that need to be fixed in our cross-border payment future.
It is an antidote because it will help readers to avoid the stablecoin hype trap, which claims they will solve all problems with cross-border payments.
Read why even though SWIFT sponsors the report, it is refreshingly pragmatic.
Less than 1% of Firms Build Responsible AI
9 steps build trust, cut risks
Responsible AI is good for business, and the WEF does a great job of providing nine practical suggestions that will help companies advance RESPONSIBLE AI innovation.
It is a tragic strategic error that responsible AI is seen by many as a process that delays AI innovation or embodies some form of tech weakness.
It is so prevalent that less than 1% of organizations have fully operationalized responsible AI in a comprehensive and anticipatory manner.
Read why these statistics are just the tip of the iceberg….
Your Survival Guide to the GENIUS Act (Premium Subscribers Only)
Avoid the Risks that No One is Talking About!
Dear Premium subscriber, Thanks for your support! I thought that that as the GENIUS Act is making stablecoins the de facto “digital dollar,” we needed a place to look at the Act in detail.
I support the “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025” or GENIUS Act, but dislike the hype surrounding stablecoins.
Money Disrupted: The Definitive Collection of Stablecoin Resources (Premium Subscribers Only)
Everything you need to see through stablecoin hype and become an expert to stay ahead of the curve
Dear Premium subscriber, thanks for your support! This special article is a curated collection of my best articles that discuss stablecoins. I promised “the good, bad and ugly” and I guarantee that my articles will do just that.
Bonus Read✦ Citi Report: Bank Tokens Crush Stablecoins?
EU banks fight back and launch euro stablecoin!
Citi’s report on stablecoins is perfectly timed to match nine EU banks issuing a euro stablecoin as banks fight back!
The MiCAR-compliant euro-denominated stablecoin will be launched by a consortium of nine major European banks:
ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, UniCredit, SEB, CaixaBank and Raiffeisen Bank International.
This EU consortium is a great example of how banks will fight back against the loss of their payment dominance to stablecoin providers.
The message from EU banks is clear: they’re not giving up payments without a fight.
But US and EU banks aren’t just hitting back against stablecoin providers.
Because they’re banks, they have another trick up their sleeve that stablecoin providers can’t match, “bank tokens.”
Citi states:
“The bank token market could easily become bigger than stablecoins. The world’s largest banks already transfer $5 trillion to $10 trillion daily through existing payment systems.”
“If only 1 percent of these volumes moved over to “bank tokens”, this would amount to $12.5 trillion -$25 trillion at individual big global banks on an annual basis.”
Citi’s bullish estimate of the stablecoin market is $4 trillion.
“A key advantage of ‘bank tokens’ is that they often do not require entirely new plumbing from the end-user perspective.”
Do not underestimate this significant advantage for bank tokens over stablecoins.
Citi downplays the “format war” and sees stablecoins and bank tokens as progress to smarter, faster finance.
Bunk!
Citibank isn’t fooling anyone!
Banks are coming after stablecoin providers with claws out and will do anything possible to maintain their dominance in payments.
This is a payments “format war” that banks aren’t prepared to lose.
Hot Topics for Premium Subscribers only
Imagine having someone combing through thousands of articles, over 50 RSS feeds, and 25 meticulously crafted Google searches—all to handpick the absolute best reports, just for you.
Each week, I distill this ocean of information into five concise, high-value reports, sharing the most essential knowledge you need to stay ahead.
But that’s not all. I also collect additional exclusive, hard-to-find gems, which I put in the section below—all in PDF format with my brief expert commentary.
To download them, no corporate email is required, no searching, and no links to other places are required. With a paid subscription, these insights are just a click away.
Here’s what you’re missing out on this week in the Premium Subscriber-only section below:
APAC consumer payment behavior 2025
Special grey market report for subscribers only. Since 2018, the Asia-Pacific region has consistently maintained its position as the world leader with a solid digital payment foundation and impressive growth rate.
Payments 2030: What’s shaping the future
For subscribers only, I’ve got the executive survey that went with today’s third story on cross-border payments!
As we look toward 2030, the payments industry is moving through one of the most significant periods of change in its history.
AI assessments: enhancing confidence in AI
How on earth can you have responsible AI without an assessment tool? This ties in to our fourth story today!
And that’s just a selection of today’s cache of insightful PDF reports. You’re also missing the infamous Chart of the Day, which today covers: “The U.S.-China Innovation Gap Is Getting Narrower”
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