WORKSHOPS

From Strategy to Scalable Deployment
19–20 November 2026 · Amsterdam

A two-day executive program for banking leaders who need to move AI from pilot to production. Senior practitioners from ING, Danske Bank and RiverBank share what it took to deliver AI in their own organisations. After each block of talks, participants work in small moderated groups on their own bank’s AI initiative, using The Banking 50’s BEACON framework.

The objective is not ideation. The objective is deployment.

What you take home

• A BEACON readiness profile of your institution across six dimensions
• One prioritized, scored AI use case with a clear business case
• A governance pathway and data readiness snapshot
• A stakeholder map and engagement plan
• A 90-day roadmap with named owners, milestones and success metrics

Who should attend

Senior leaders responsible for AI, data, technology, operations, risk or product in banks and financial institutions, especially those with an AI initiative they want to get into production.

Program

Thursday 19 November

09:00 · Opening: Why AI Stalls in Banks, and How BEACON Moves It Forward
Morten Kriek, Founder, The Banking 50
Most banks have AI ambition and funding, but few move initiatives from pilot to production. This opening introduces the BEACON framework and how two days of insight become a plan you take home.

09:30 · Delivering AI in Retail Payments, Cards and Cash
Delia Vasile, IT Area Lead, Retail Banking Payments, Cards and Cash Services, ING
Payments, cards and cash run on high-volume, business-critical platforms where every change has many owners. Delia shares where AI readiness gaps show up first, and how business, technology, risk and operations can be aligned to close them.

10:05 · Building an AI-Native Bank: Lessons from a Product-Led Challenger
Ankur Sisodia, Chief Product Officer, RiverBank
Challengers design AI into the product from day one, while incumbents usually add it to existing journeys. Drawing on RiverBank and his time as Head of Product at N26, Ankur shows what incumbents can realistically adopt.

10:45 · BEACON Breakout: Readiness Assessment
Score your institution across the six BEACON dimensions and identify your strengths and critical gaps.

13:00 · AI Against Financial Crime: Scaling Prevention in a Global Wholesale Bank
Ivar Lammers, Global Head of Financial Crime Prevention, ING Wholesale Banking
Financial crime prevention is one of the few areas where banks already run AI at scale under intense regulatory scrutiny. Ivar shares how to choose where AI earns its place in AML and fraud prevention, and how to put it into operation globally.

13:40 · From Pilots to Portfolio: Scaling GenAI and ML Responsibly
Speaker to be announced
Most banks have more AI pilots than they can scale, and the hard part is deciding which to back and which to stop. This session shows how a large bank builds and scales a responsible AI portfolio.

14:20 · BEACON Breakout: Use Case Prioritization
Score your candidate use cases on value, feasibility, readiness and risk, and commit to one.

16:00 · AI on Legacy Rails: Modernising Markets Post-Trade
Christian Luckow, Managing Director, Markets Post Trade Technology, and Tobias Prims, Domain Product Owner, FX & Loans, Danske Bank
Post-trade is where decades-old systems, strict regulation and real-time demands meet. Christian and Tobias show how AI-driven development and platform modernisation move forward together in FX, loans and clearing.

16:30 · BEACON Breakout: Governance & Data Readiness
Define the risk tier, decision rights and data foundations your use case needs.

17:30 · Reception and Dinner

Friday 20 November

09:00 · Making It Stick: Ownership, Alignment and the First 90 Days
Speaker to be announced
AI initiatives rarely fail on the idea; they fail when ownership is unclear and the people who decide are not on board. This session covers sponsorship, coalition-building and planning the first 90 days.

09:40 · BEACON Breakout: Stakeholder Alignment & 90-Day Roadmap
Map your champions and blockers, and build a 30/60/90-day plan with named owners.

11:00 · From Plan to Production: Roadmap Review and Peer Challenge
Mac Mahalingam, Damir Vodenicarevic and Morten Kriek
Participants present their roadmaps and are challenged by peers and moderators on feasibility, architecture and risk.

12:30 · Closing and Certificates

Moderators

• Damir Vodenicarevic, CEO & Co-Founder, Clehance
• Mac Mahalingam, Senior Solutions Architect, Global Financial Services, Amazon Web Services
• Morten Kriek, Founder, The Banking 50