Banks across the Middle East are investing heavily in AI, but the real test is whether it can deliver measurable value beyond the headlines — faster service, lower costs, and better access to finance. Mambu recently launched its Intelligent Core, connecting AI to core banking operations. Joining me is Ali Assaf, Account Executive at Mambu. Ali, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure to be here.
For a bank already using your platform, what is the first everyday job that Intelligent Core actually changes and what would the team notice?
The first immediate effect is on high friction points with customers — things like payment repair and exception handling. Instead of operations teams going through multiple systems to collect different pieces of data — a lot of which is stale or overnight data from different systems reconciling — users will have access to live, decision-ready data prepared by AI agents without having to go through a lot of issues to get to the problem solved. That has an immediate impact on customer experience and the speed of resolving issues.
Can you give us a before and after that shows what the new AI capabilities are actually delivering on the ground?
While I cannot give specific customer names or metrics for confidentiality reasons, what I can tell you is that decisions that would take a bank two to three business days to reach can now be ready within seconds or minutes. It is then up to the bank to decide whether they want a fully automated process or still want a human element attached to making those decisions.
How soon should a bank expect that investment to pay for itself?
Because we target back-office operations instead of the general banking journey, it is easier to measure the ROI. Usually any bank-related technology project would take years for the ROI to be seen. In this case we are talking weeks to months — because you are going to see an immediate change, especially with humans in the loop when it comes to accuracy, compliance, and the ability to get data ready for decision-making in minutes rather than days.
Nayla recently raised nearly $18 million to expand microfinance in Saudi Arabia. What would Mambu need to help a lender do more cheaply for very small customers?
The issue with micro businesses is not that they are unlendable. It is that the manual processes required to make good lending decisions and reduce risk are very heavy and very costly. With Mambu's cloud-native infrastructure, open API capabilities, and the ability to connect to intelligent systems, that cost can be brought down to near-zero. I am not talking about the technology cost — I am talking about the manual work cost. Once that is virtually zero and everything is automated, it becomes very easy to credit-score micro businesses, which makes it more lucrative for banks and lenders to enter that segment without losing all of their margins to manual processing.
In July, Saudi lending to public sector enterprises was growing at almost 20% against roughly 7% for bank credit overall. How far can technology change who banks lend to?
Technology does not just enable new lenders — it helps to completely de-risk segments that banks usually avoid, either because they are high risk or because it is very expensive to quantify the risk in those areas. Once we combine core banking with payments and live AI data, we remove the guesswork and make the risk more measurable. It is still up to the banks who they want to lend to — bigger institutions or smaller ones. But whichever way they decide to go, they are more informed and have better risk information to use.
When automation brings costs down, who gets the benefit — the customer or the bank's margins?
Right now, in the current global economic climate, banks are definitely focused on keeping their margins to keep their operations running. But banking is a highly competitive space. As AI continues to grow and lower costs to serve, we are going to see more competition from open banking and fintechs — which will eventually force institutions to offer better deposit rates, lower lending rates, or find a way to present a superior digital experience to keep their customers.
What result from a Middle Eastern customer would you want to show us next year to prove this launch made a real difference?
By next year, I would want to show you that this is not just a pilot programme. We should be able to show success stories of regional institutions using AI in production — not just testing it out. Real efficiency gains and lightning-fast products, proving that intelligence is essential for banking moving forward and not just a digital trend.
Thank you very much, Ali. It is a pleasure having you.
Absolutely. I look forward to that.
