Jack Henry announced at the company’s investor conference last week that it is integrating elements of its digital banking repertoire into its core solution set, including a conversation tool from the company’s Banno Digital Platform that “goes beyond” artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots.

Banno Conversations is a securely authenticated conversation solution that connects banks with their customers using automated workflows to enhance banking services, Ben Metz, chief digital and technology officer at Jack Henry, said during the conference.

“[The bank] can be working on your case by the time you actually get through the phone system,” Metz said. “If you wake up in the morning and you see three transactions you don’t think you made, do you want to talk to a chatbot or a phone line or an automated phone system or AI of any kind? No. We call that a ‘moment of need.'”

Targeting larger regional banks

Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry is also updating its core product to assist regional banks during mergers and acquisitions (M&A), in part by allowing upgrades piece by piece or all at once as a “big bang,” Chief Executive David Foss noted at the conference.

The core and digital banking solutions provider is looking to grow in the $50 billion to $100 billion larger regional bank space and recently began engaging with consultancies like Accenture and Deloitte that work with such regional banks in acquisitions. “Now we have relationships with all of them,” Foss said.

So far this year, Jack Henry signed three bank customers for M&A assistance services and identified another 12 potential M&A candidates, Greg Adelson, president and chief operating officer, said at the conference. He did not name the new or prospective customers.

“We are spending a lot of time building out some key feature functionality within the core to drive us to be able to go upstream with some of our existing customers to get them prepared if they’re acquisitive and looking to do a merger,” Adelson said.

Jack Henry is the second-largest bank core provider in the U.S. with 18.5% market share, according to fintech and banking data firm FI Navigator.

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