FNB has earned global recognition for using artificial intelligence to improve customer experiences, winning two honours at the 2026 Global Digital Banker AI Innovation Awards programme.
The bank was recognised in the Outstanding Use of AI in Digital Sales category for the second consecutive year and received its first award for Outstanding Use of AI in Marketing.
Hosted by The Digital Banker, the Global AI Innovation Awards recognise organisations using artificial intelligence to create meaningful customer outcomes while also demonstrating measurable commercial impact.
For FNB, the awards provide international recognition for an approach that places customer needs at the centre of its artificial intelligence strategy.
Rather than positioning AI simply as a technology investment, the bank is using it to help customers discover relevant products and services more quickly, reduce friction across digital channels and create more personalised interactions.
Dane Liebenberg, AI Executive for Retail and Business Banking at FNB, said the bank’s approach starts with customer value.
“At FNB, innovation is never about technology for technology’s sake. It is about using technology responsibly to better serve the bank’s customers,” Liebenberg said.
“AI helps us better understand the evolving needs of our customers so that we can remove friction, personalise experiences and make it easier for them to access products and services that add real value at different life stages.”
The results behind the awards indicate how extensively those capabilities are already being used.
By June 2026, FNB’s AI-enabled sales capabilities had generated 2.3 million sales, representing year-on-year growth of 37.1%.
Personalised offers informed by contextual triggers and recommendation capabilities also delivered an 18% increase in customer engagement.
The bank recorded a 75% improvement in advertising engagement and a 46% increase in sales generated through digital advertising.
Those outcomes help explain why FNB’s recognition extends beyond the technical sophistication of its AI systems.
The awards reflect whether technology is translating into experiences customers are actually engaging with and whether those experiences create measurable value for both the customer and the business.
That connection places FNB’s AI strategy firmly within a shared-value conversation.
The bank benefits when digital communication and sales become more effective, while customers benefit when information, products and services are presented in ways that are more relevant to their circumstances.
For a financial institution serving millions of people, personalisation can also reduce the complexity customers encounter when navigating large numbers of products and digital messages.
“What makes this recognition particularly meaningful is that it reflects how technology can strengthen human help and improve everyday customer experiences,” Liebenberg said.
That focus on strengthening human support is significant as businesses increasingly adopt artificial intelligence across customer-facing operations.
The challenge is no longer simply whether companies can deploy AI.
It is whether they can use it responsibly, transparently and in ways that make services easier to access without weakening the human judgement and assistance customers may still require.
FNB’s first recognition in the Outstanding Use of AI in Marketing category also highlights how the technology is being integrated into customer communication.
Suzanne Myburgh, Head of First Advertising at FNB, said the award reflects the combination of creativity, customer insight, data and technology.
“This recognition is a strong affirmation of the work First Advertising is doing to combine creativity, audience insight, data and AI in ways that deliver measurable value for both customers and the business,” Myburgh said.
“Both accolades demonstrate the strength of our integrated approach and ability to turn customer understanding into communication that is more relevant, timely and effective.”
The approach illustrates an important distinction between using AI simply to increase the volume of marketing and using it to make communication more useful.
Consumers encounter large volumes of advertising and digital information every day.
Better use of data and contextual insight can help businesses reduce irrelevant communication and focus instead on information that may have genuine value to an individual customer.
For Myburgh, artificial intelligence does not replace the creative and human elements of that process.
“For us, AI does not replace creativity or human judgement. It enables us to apply these capabilities with greater precision, helping our brand cut through the volume of messages customers encounter every day and connect with them in more meaningful ways,” she said.
That principle is increasingly important within responsible digital innovation.
As AI becomes embedded across banking, retail, healthcare, education and other sectors, businesses will increasingly be assessed not only on whether they use the technology, but on what outcomes that use produces.
Customer accessibility, trust, relevance and inclusion will become as important as efficiency and sales growth.
FNB’s recognition therefore provides an example of how commercial innovation and customer benefit can reinforce one another.
Artificial intelligence can help organisations understand patterns and identify customer needs at scale, while human judgement remains essential in determining how those insights are translated into products, services and communication.
The awards also demonstrate how measurable outcomes can strengthen claims around responsible innovation.
Rather than presenting AI adoption as an abstract future strategy, FNB is able to connect its technology investment to customer engagement, digital sales and improved interaction with its services.
Liebenberg said the bank intends to continue developing its AI capabilities around three priorities: stronger human help, deeper customer understanding and trust.
“We want to make banking more intuitive, accessible and rewarding for the millions of customers we serve every day,” she said.
For FNB, the two Global Digital Banker AI Innovation Awards therefore represent more than recognition of technology.
They recognise an attempt to use artificial intelligence as a practical tool for improving the relationship between customers and financial services.
As AI continues to reshape banking, the stronger measure of innovation will increasingly be whether technology delivers tangible value for the people using it.
FNB’s latest global recognition suggests that customer-centred application, rather than AI adoption alone, is becoming the benchmark by which meaningful digital innovation will be judged.
