Retail banking and payments are entering what Datos Insights defines as the Empowerment Era — a shift toward customer control, embedded intelligence, and real-time execution. In its Top Trends 2026 research, Datos Insights emphasizes that competitive advantage will depend increasingly on an institution’s ability to operationalize insight directly within live customer interactions.
OpenWay, a global provider of digital payment software, addresses this shift through Way4, its top-rated, enterprise-grade payments platform. Way4 is designed to execute complex payment logic in real time across cards, accounts, wallets, and instant payment schemes — making it a practical foundation for institutions seeking to translate strategic intent into live operational outcomes.
From the full set of trends identified by Datos Insights, several are especially relevant when viewed through the lens of payments execution and core platform capabilities.
AI scales from experimentation to autonomous operations
According to Datos Insights, 82% of midsize to large companies globally are expected to be using GenAI functionality to manage their banking and payments by the end of 2026.
This signals a clear move away from isolated AI experiments toward embedded intelligence that directly influences operational decisions. As AI becomes part of core execution, financial institutions face increasing pressure to deploy it safely, at scale, and within live transaction environments.
OpenWay alignment: Way4 treats AI as an execution-layer capability rather than a detached analytics tool. Through tight integration with the Way4 Data Management Platform (DMP), transactional data is available in real time for model training, inference, and decisioning. AI-driven logic can be deployed directly inside payment flows, enabling a controlled progression from experimentation to production.
Hyperpersonalization drives real-time responsiveness and revenue
Datos Insights reports that 39% of consumers choose their primary financial institution for its high-quality or personalized service.
Personalization is no longer optional. Customers expect responses to behavioral signals and contextual needs in real time, using data institutions already possess but is often fragmented or delayed.
OpenWay alignment: Way4 generates clean, structured, context-rich data at the moment transactions occur. This allows personalization logic to be applied directly within live payment flows — not after the fact. Way4 DMP then transforms this data into AI-ready structures, enabling real-time, contextual decisioning with enterprise-grade governance and control.
Payment speed redefines competitive economics
According to Datos Insights, 87% of mid-sized and large businesses say they already are, or will be, utilizing real-time payments by the end of 2026.
Real-time payments, account-to-account transfers, and instant clearing models are reshaping competitive economics. Speed, visibility, and continuous availability are becoming baseline expectations across both consumer and merchant payments.
OpenWay alignment: Way4 supports real-time processing in live production across card, wallet, and account-based rails. A single Way4 deployment handles tens of millions of transactions per day while enabling real-time authorization, clearing, and settlement for schemes such as SEPA Instant Credit Transfer, PIX, FedNow, UPI, and real-time card clearing models. Business logic, including fraud controls, pricing, limits, routing, and merchant settlement is applied live, without batch delays, allowing Way4 users to operate in an always-on payments environment.
Operational alignment with the Datos Insights 2026 agenda
The trends identified by Datos Insights emphasize execution over intent. To translate strategy into results, platforms must support real-time data access, embedded intelligence, and dynamic transaction control.
Way4 aligns with this agenda by serving as a real-time execution platform for modern payments. Its architecture enables institutions to move beyond rule-based automation toward governed autonomy — where AI-driven decisions are explainable, configurable, and embedded directly into live transaction flows. By unifying processing, AI-ready data, and decisioning, Way4 allows banks, processors, and payment providers to operationalize insight at scale while maintaining resilience, compliance, and control.
This article is based on Datos Insights Top Trends 2026.
