Coming Soon: Research

Coming soon

Research on The Vault will publish original studies of how AI actually reaches banks and credit unions: through vendor platforms, public models and the events where those products are shown. Nothing below is a finished paper. Each item is a planned project. No findings, rankings or release dates are implied.

Planned studies

Automation Engine Optimization

A planned evaluation of agentic search accessibility: how readily an institution can be found, understood and correctly represented when AI systems retrieve and act on public information. The intended scope is 200 banks, assessed across eight frontier models. That scope is the study design, not a completed census.

Finovate 2026 (Spring and Fall) Landscape

A planned landscape of what was demonstrated at FinovateSpring 2026 and FinovateFall 2026, written for community bank and credit union leaders rather than for vendors. It will cover the two 2026 U.S. Finovate conferences. It is not a recap of a single session, and it is not yet written.

Frontier model accessibility for banks and credit unions

A planned study of how frontier models treat banks and credit unions: whether public information about an institution is findable, whether answers about products and controls are usable, and where models fail closed-door or regulated questions. Scope and method will be stated when the paper is published. No accessibility scores are offered here.

These three titles are the research queue. They will appear on this page as they are released. Until then, treat this as a placeholder so the Research destination on The Vault has a home.

Upstate AI helps banks and credit unions understand, evaluate and implement AI on established platforms. Its founder, Ben Nichols, works with institutions on AI strategy, implementation and governance, and teaches AI at Syracuse University. ben@up-state-ai.com