Money20/20 Money Awards: Bronze in Banking

Gradient Labs won Bronze in the Banking category of The Money Awards 2026, in the AI & Automation sub-category, announced on 18 October 2026 at Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas. We entered our AI customer support agent, which handles frontline support for banks and fintechs and then carries each case through to the back-office work behind it, including disputes and KYC.

One detail of the Banking category made this one worth entering: it does not reward a demo. Entrants had to show at least 12 months of measurable impact in production. Below is what the jury looked for, and what Gradient Labs' AI agent was doing in production.

The Banking category rewards production, not demos

Entries opened in March and closed in July. For Banking, entrants had to demonstrate at least 12 months of sustained, measurable impact, with activity running between 1 January 2025 and 31 July 2026. Any use of AI in writing the entry had to be disclosed.

Judging then ran in three stages. Jurors first scored every entry independently on a nine-point scale to set the shortlist. The jury then debated the finalists under its Jury President and voted on Gold, Silver, and Bronze, with a two-thirds majority required before any trophy was awarded. Gold winners went forward to a final vote for the Grand Prix.

The Banking panel was chaired by Shruti Patel, Chief Product Officer for Business Banking at U.S. Bank. The jury alongside her:

• Daniele Tonella, Chief Technology Officer and board member, ING
  
  

• Trish Devine, Global Head of Corporate Payments Sales, J.P. Morgan
  
  

• Tendai Dube, Chief Operating Officer, Absa CIB Technology
  
  

• Lee Chen Choong, Deputy Director, Central Bank of Malaysia
  
  

• Daniel Minarik, Chief Data and Innovation Officer, Tatra Bank
  
  

• Murtaza Ali, CEO, JazzCash Pakistan
  
  

• Rafael Fragoso, Digital Banking Executive Director, Banorte
  
  

• Tamas Kadar, Co-Founder and CEO, SEON
  
  

That is a panel of people who run banking technology and operations for a living.

The winning work of Gradient Labs' AI agent

Our agent resolves conversations end to end rather than deflecting them into an article or a queue. At Plum, the financial app serving 2 million customers across 10 markets, it reached a 98.6% quality assurance score against a scorecard Plum defined and ran themselves, alongside 80% CSAT and a 52% resolution rate on day one. Setting the agent up on Intercom took 30 minutes and no engineering work.

At Zego, the UK motor insurer with almost 150,000 active customers, the agent reduced call volume by 25% and now runs at a 60% resolution rate.

Our AI agent fully resolves customer support cases, including the back-office work that usually falls to a human afterwards. When a customer disputes a card payment, the agent gathers the evidence, checks it against the scheme rules, and raises the claim in the back-office system, telling the customer where they stand while it does: "I've raised this as a dispute and credited the £48 provisionally while we investigate. You'll hear from us within five working days."

Running that kind of work in a regulated firm is a question of control rather than capability, which is why we build every deployment around a secure AI agent for banking and the guardrails that sit around it. Across our customers, our agents now serve more than 32 million end users in production.

The 2026 Banking winners

Oscilar and Sardine took Bronze in the same sub-category, and the full list across every category is on the Money20/20 winners portal. Congratulations to them, and to everyone who made the Banking shortlist.

If you want to see what the jury assessed, book a demo with us.

Questions about The Money Awards

What are the Money20/20 Money Awards?

The Money Awards are Money20/20's global fintech awards programme, launched in 2025 and now in their second year. They recognise the companies, products, and partnerships shaping financial services across five categories: Banking, Payments, Partnerships & Strategic Alliance, Startup, and Diamond. Winners are revealed on stage at Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas each October.

How are The Money Awards judged?

An independent global jury of more than 40 industry leaders scores every entry on a nine-point scale to set the shortlist, then debates the finalists and votes on Gold, Silver, and Bronze. A trophy requires a two-thirds majority of the jury. Banking entries, the category Gradient Labs won, must also evidence at least 12 months of measurable impact in production.

Who won Banking: AI & Automation at The Money Awards 2026?

Three companies took Bronze in the Banking AI & Automation sub-category in 2026: Gradient Labs, Oscilar, and Sardine. No Gold or Silver was awarded in that sub-category. Omnisient won the Banking Grand Prix for using grocery shopping data as alternative data, and True Link took Gold for customer experience.

What does Gradient Labs do?

Gradient Labs builds AI agents for financial services. Our agents handle frontline customer support across chat, email, and voice, then complete the back-office work behind each case, including disputes, collections, and KYC. We work with banks, insurers, and fintechs including Wise, Zego, Plum, and LHV.