Anne-Marie Twigge on the Impact of AI on Customer Trust.

For years, brand communication in banking, insurance, and fintech revolved around hyper-personalization: the better a brand understood its customer, the stronger the relationship. Financial institutions are expected to meet the sky-high demands of individuals and businesses who are regularly impressed by hyper-personalized recommendations. Think, for example, of Netflix suggesting your next binge based on viewing behavior.

Now, customers expect the same from their banks and insurers—proactive, tailored services. That’s why banks are heavily investing in technologies that enable this. But the same technologies are also being used for deepfake content, AI-driven phishing, and social engineering attacks. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, a staggering 73 percent of all data breaches in 2024 will be caused by these methods.

Last Thursday, Cultural Insight Director Anne-Marie Twigge gave a talk at De Kas for a select group of CMOs, marketers, and brand directors in the financial sector. In her presentation, she focused on the impact of AI on the reputation of financial institutions. AI not only creates and spreads information faster, but can also manipulate and deceive customers.

Banks have closed their physical branches, forcing customers—including the elderly and less digitally skilled—to manage their finances entirely online. What was once meant to improve the customer experience now poses a threat:

• Hyper-personalization is being misused to manipulate consumers.

• AI understands customer preferences so well it can mimic brand experiences that feel more convincing than the original.

• Trust built up over years can be copied and exploited in seconds.

2025: The Year of Financial Hyperauthenticity

So how can banks and insurers regain customer trust in an era where branches are disappearing and TV commercials have less impact? CMOs can’t stop AI, but they can adapt their brand strategies to remain credible. This requires a fundamental marketing shift:

Brand security becomes essential
Brands must proactively protect their domain and guide what is truly authentic. Guarding Distinctive Brand Assets is more important than ever. By consistently showing the same assets, brands build trust.

Use well-known public figures
Technology can go far in manipulating images and videos, but copying a famous Dutch person is more difficult and more easily detected. Financial brands should consider how to leverage this.

Brand experiences must include built-in verification mechanisms
Consumers need to immediately recognize what is real. Adobe, for example, is working on Content Authenticity technologies to mark AI-generated content. This is crucial—especially when it comes to customers’ money.

The question is no longer: We communicate with our customers, but We interact with our customers—before AI does.
CMOs who anticipate this shift and proactively secure their brand will win customer trust more quickly. And in the end, that’s what truly matters for financial institutions.

This piece was originally published on https://marketingreport.nl/financiele-hyperauthenticiteit-in-een-ai-tijdperk/